A homeowner finds a drowned dog. Most people she calls will not remove it. What to do?
By JON WILSON
Published August 24, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - After a session of yard work Thursday, Cindy Amzibel decided to spend some time in her backyard pool. She stopped cold when she looked out her sliding glass doors.
A dead dog floated in her swimming pool.
"Three hours of hell" followed, Amzibel said, when she tried to contact several government agencies to come remove the animal.
It appeared to be a wandering husky that had come through a gate left ajar while the yard work was being done, fallen into the pool and drowned.
The Shore Acres resident said she called Mayor Rick Baker's office, the Police Department, city sanitation and Pinellas County Animal Services.
"I'm crying on the phone because I've got this problem," Amzibel said. "The most amazing thing about it was that nobody cared about the dog or the dog's owner. Nobody had enough authority to step outside the box."
Amzibel said she was told at various times that county Animal Services deals only with live creatures, that sanitation workers would pick up the carcass only if she pulled it to curbside, that essentially it was her problem to solve.
She said she didn't want to put the dog on the curb because she didn't want children from nearby Shore Acres Elementary School to see it.
Her private pest control company agreed to pick up the dog, Amzibel said. But after calls to City Hall went through the official pipelines, city sanitation department workers eventually removed the carcass.
Director Chuck Schauer said city codes require the department to pick up and dispose of dead animals when they are reported - although policy often keeps workers from going on private property for liability reasons.
"There are exceptions to that in all cases," Schauer said. "Once I found out it wasn't her dog, I told the guys we need to go out and get the animal."
Schauer said he doesn't recall any other such cases during his two decades of sanitation service, although workers once buried a dead dolphin.
But whom do you call when an animal, domestic or wild, winds up dead in your yard?
Schauer suggests the sanitation department's special collections number, 893-7398. The same number can be used to report road kill.
Animal Services seldom gets involved with dead animals, said Dr. Kenny Mitchell, the director. Usually, it's the job of sanitation or public works departments, he said. The county department, though, keeps a list of private companies that will dispose of carcasses. Call 582-2600, Mitchell said.
"Calling us, we could give them advice, if not give them help," he said.
On Friday, sanitation officials still were trying to reach the owner of the dog, which had a tag with an address a couple of blocks from Amzibel's house.
"It was a beautiful dog," said Amzibel, who has an Australian shepherd named Gator.
It's not unusual for a dog or cat to drown in a swimming pool, said Beth Lockwood, SPCA director. They tumble in, can't struggle back over the side and become exhausted.
"It happens regularly," Lockwood said. "Some don't know how to swim, but more importantly, many don't know how to get out of a pool. People need to train animals to get out."
