EXTRA help is being offered to save animals on West Yorkshire’s motorways.
And a successful pilot scheme, with the Government’s Highways Agency working with the RSPCA to deal with animals injured on the motorways, will be expanded nationwide.
The scheme will increase safety, reduce delay for drivers and help protect animals from traffic. It will also ensure injured animals receive prompt attention.
Calls to the RSPCA about injured animals from Highways Agency traffic officers will be made priorities and an RSPCA inspector will attend or send a vet to the scene.
Cows, bulls, horses, dogs, deer, swans, chickens and sheep are just some of the animals with which traffic officers have to deal.
On urban motorways, such as the M621, straying dogs are often the main problem.
The Highways Agency has set up agreements with dog wardens and 24-hour police kennels. Traffic Officers will stay with an animal until it can be collected and will then provide protection from the traffic for dog wardens or RSPCA members while they are working on the hard shoulder.
The Highways Agency is also collecting identity tag details for farm animals.
