PAMPERED pets run over on Pendle's roads are being put on ice in a deep freeze so owners can give their much-loved companions a decent send-off.

Rather than cold-heartedly throwing them on a tip, Pendle Council staff put the pets in a bag with details of where they were found, and keep them in a chest freezer for up to a week so people can claim them.

The bizarre service was started earlier this year after council staff found owners were telephoning to find their missing cats and dogs - only to be told they had been disposed of on Rowley Tip, Burnley.

"People were quite distressed sometimes to find that their pets had been disposed of on the tip when they wanted to bury them themselves," said Julie Livesey, a contract monitoring officer with the council's environmental services department.

"We'd get people ringing up asking for their pets back and they'd already gone to the tip. "So we bought an ordinary chest freezer and now when they get picked up and we don't know who the owner is, the pet is put in a bag with details of what kind of animal it was and where it was found.

"It stays in the freezer for up to a week.

"After that it goes to Crawshawbooth Pet Cemetery for cremation."

The grieving owner can even buy a death certificate to say their loved one had been cremated at the cemetery.

Police and vets direct people who find pets run-over in the area are directed to the council service, housed in Fleet Street depot in Nelson.

Although the service is only used by a small number of people each year, Julie said owners often appreciated the fact they could claim their pets and choose their own way of disposing of them.

The service is confined to cats and dogs.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.