An Auckland woman says she's heartbroken after discovering an Auckland Council contractor dumped her dead cat in a ditch.
When council contractors find dead pets, they're meant to take them to a shelter to be scanned for a microchip.
Rebecca Jelley was told numerous different stories over a two-day period by Auckland Council and its roading contractor Fulton Hogan about what had happened to her cat Muffin.
"Cat was mangled and had been buried over in Huia… another story about the cat being not mangled and at the shelter… the cat was in two pieces and he'd just thrown it off a cliff," she says.
None of them were true.
It took repeated phone calls and visits to their office, but Fulton Hogan eventually admitted it had actually dumped Muffin in a ditch and she was in one piece.
And when Jelley got there, she realised the site was littered with other animal remains, like a spine. Jelley believes Fulton Hogan has been using the site as a dumping ground.
"We went deeper into the bush and up the stream and we found discarded cats and further bones, which is just horrible."
The site is just a five minute drive from Fulton Hogan's Henderson office and just 15 minutes from Auckland Council's animal shelter.
Auckland Council wouldn't comment on the situation, saying it's an employment relations matter.
Fulton Hogan refused Newshub's interview request, choosing to issue a statement instead.
"[The dumping is] contrary to common decency and our company values... We are currently dealing with the incident and individual in an appropriate manner. We have expressed our sincere apologies to the family."
But Jelley says it hasn't apologised.
"We haven't had anyone call us and say this is a total mess and we're looking into it so it doesn't happen again," she says.
That's all she wants - to make sure nobody else's pet is dumped in a ditch.
