It is not uncommon that when help intervenes in elderly people living alone they wonder to whom they can entrust their pet. And depending on the circumstances, it is sometimes difficult to find a loved one ready to take Grandma’s dog or Grandpa’s cat home. To prevent this from being a source of concern for the attentive master, the town hall of Toulouse has just created an “animal emergency card”.
In the format of a business card, it slips into the wallet. On it, owners can write the names of trusted people to whom they can entrust Félix the cat or Kéké the parrot.
“We realized during certain exchanges that a good number of people who were alone, elderly or disabled, had a special bond with their dog, their cat or their NAC. And often, they worry and ask us what will happen to their animal if something happens to them. We had this idea of a card to reassure them, to slip into their identity papers, so that the police or the emergency services have access to it in the event of an accident or emergency hospitalization, “explains François Ampoulange, adviser delegated to “the animal in the city”.
” Good initiative “
Free, it is available in the town halls annexes, libraries, citizenship centers or at the reception of the Capitol. It can also be downloaded from the town hall website. And for the associations “it’s a good initiative”. “That way the animals will not go directly to the pound. This card can be intended for the elderly, who have a health concern. But I am also thinking of the dogs of the homeless, who sometimes find themselves on their own when their masters have a problem, or even people arrested and who end up in Seysses,” says Anne-Marie Aubert, vice-president of the Toulouse association for animal protection-SPA.
This shelter in the Pink City also acts as a pound 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is therefore likely to accommodate animals that find themselves alone when their owners have a problem. “We’re going to keep them until their master can get them back.” Sometimes no one comes to claim them and they are put up for adoption, sometimes it is the people who ask us to do so because they can no longer take care of them, ”continues the spokesperson for this association which welcomes each year between 1,500 and 1,700 dogs, including nearly 300 permanently, as well as a hundred cats.
On the eve of the holidays, the refuge is already full and operates at just the right time thanks to the 17 employees and volunteers. But with the approach of the summer holidays, its leaders fear the waves of abandonment. Especially since due to the health crisis, the number of adoptions has dropped sharply, unlike the number of animals taken in. These are often dogs or cats. But not only. At the moment, the shelter welcomes five abandoned black pigs and their 13 piglets. All looking for an adoptive family.
