January 30, 2012

Animal emergency number forwards callers to local TV channel

Filed under: Animals by Branko Collin @ 10:36 pm

The animal police do not seem to be entirely sure what to do when people call their emergency hot line, 144, De Pers reports.

Ms Van der Meer from The Hague called the number last week because she had found a wounded bat. The operator forwarded her to Dierenambulance (a volunteer-run ambulance for animals), where they referred her to pest control.

Residents of the Amsterdam neighbourhood Geuzenveld called 144 because a cat had refused to leave a tree for several days —they were told to call the local TV station, AT5.

Press spokes person Ed Kraszewski of the National Police Services Agency said that “the 25 operators received training, but it is mostly ‘learning on the job’.”

Parliamentarian Dion Graus (PVV), the initiator of the animal cops and 144 thinks that operators are trying to sabotage his brain child from the inside.

(Photo of a Dierenambulance by Alberto Garcia, some rights reserved)

Tags: , ,