It’s not clear whether Paige Hunsicker’s dog, Scooby, was the one whose body was found by Interstate 81 this summer, but that’s the point.
No one checked the embedded microchip before the animal was disposed of at the landfill.
Hunsicker made an impression at the Salem City Council meeting this week when she told of learning a road crew had found a dead dog that might be her lost pet and being told the only way to find out was to look for the carcass at the landfill.
Virginia Department of Transportation officials later in the week told Cardinal News the dog didn’t look like Scooby, but Hunsicker says she was told otherwise by the driver who found the dog. And her story has generated interest by at least two lawmakers in preventing such heartbreak from playing out for any other Virginia families.
Del. Joe McNamara, R-Roanoke County, told Cardinal News he plans to reach out to VDOT and related state departments to ask for suggestions on a solution, whether that be new legislation or changes to existing policies.
“I think there is a very, very strong interest from our office to not allow this to happen to someone else,” McNamara said.
State Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, who has worked on animal issues before, said he is open to introducing bipartisan legislation to avoid a repeat of the incident.
“I think it’s important that we make sure that our government entities that come in contact with stray animals, whether they be alive or dead, take that extra step to microchip them,” Stanley said on Wednesday. “And that seems to be a simple thing that we should do in Virginia.”
Stanley said the question is whether equipping VDOT crews and contractors with microchip scanners would be a financial burden or a strain on crews. “Yes we should,” he said, “the question is can we, within reason.”
Universal microchip scanners, such as those used by animal control, can cost anywhere from $60 to a few hundred dollars.
“I don’t know if you can ever rectify the two positions,” Stanley said of the discrepancies in the two accounts of the incident. “But maybe what we can do is keep that from happening again.”
Hunsicker lost Scooby in July and said she is still “perplexed” as to how he got out — the family immediately had a fence installed around their new home when they moved in 2021.
She said Scooby is named both for his physical and character attributes that reminded her of the TV character Scooby-Doo.
“He looks like Scooby, he acts like Scooby,” Hunsicker said. “He never met a stranger. He was very sweet and very goofy, one of the best dogs we’ve truly had.”
‘Pretty sure’ the dog was Scooby, but VDOT disagrees
Scooby went missing on July 24, Hunsicker said. She and her husband, Joseph, took multiple measures to try to find their beloved pet. They followed reported sightings, posted on Facebook, posted signs and put posters in mailboxes in nearby neighborhoods. They even hired two different drone services to search for Scooby from a bird’s-eye view.
She said that on Aug. 6, a subcontractor with the Virginia Department of Transportation was connected to her through a mutual friend who showed the subcontractor Scooby’s photo. Hunsicker said the subcontractor told her over the phone that he found a dog, deceased on I-81 near Glenvar, who he was “pretty sure” was Scooby, a 2-year-old mutt.
Hunsicker said she was told by the subcontractor to “check the landfill” for Scooby’s remains, which she decided not to do — she was pretty sure from the driver’s description that the dog was hers.
Scooby did have a microchip, but that was not checked before the dog was taken away. Hunsicker provided Cardinal News with the name of the subcontractor who called her, where the company referred inquiries to VDOT.
VDOT’s story differs from Hunsicker’s.
Jessica Cowardin, the assistant director of communications with the agency, said in an email that officials notified Hunsicker in July that crews found a deceased dog along I-81, but that “it did not match the description of her dog,” according to the contractor.
VDOT did not provide any additional information on the case but said that when crews find a deceased animal believed to be a household pet, VDOT uses information from a collar, if the animal is wearing one, to notify the family.
“I cannot adequately explain what it feels like to be told that your missing dog may have been found, while also being told that there’s no way to know for certain because one of the forms of identification designed specifically to identify him was never checked,” Hunsicker told the Salem City Council during the public comment period of its meeting on Monday, where she shared her story and asked that the council support policy changes to avoid this happening in the future.
“VDOT crews and contractors are not legally required to carry microchip scanners,” Cowardin said.
Regardless of the discrepancies in what happened, the situation is sparking conversations of potential new legislation or changes to existing legislation to fill what might be a gap in Virginia’s state code.
Local legislators and groups concerned, looking to take action
“A microchip only works if someone scans it, and that’s why I’m here tonight,” Hunsicker told the council. She said she doesn’t blame the driver or roadway workers who picked up the dog but that she believes there should be a “simple procedure” for deceased dogs and cats recovered from roadways.
Hunsicker said this isn’t about “giving roadway workers a new job as animal control officers” but about “creating a bridge” between roadway maintenance and the animal identification system that exists.
Salem Mayor Renee Turk said in a text message that she is in favor of the council supporting action of some sort to make checking an animal’s microchip necessary. She said there hasn’t been discussion among the council yet.
Hunsicker sent a letter on Aug. 25 to about 12 lawmakers and local officials, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger; McNamara; state Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County; VDOT officials; the Salem Animal Shelter; and officials with the office of veterinary services and the secretary of transportation.
In her letter, Hunsicker said she had encountered a “serious gap” in Virginia’s process for handling deceased companion animals from Virginia roadways.
She noted that state code requires veterinarians, animal shelters and agencies that receive companion animals to make reasonable attempts to scan them for embedded microchips and to make reasonable efforts to contact an owner when a chip is found.
“Virginia already recognizes the importance of microchip identification,” she said. “However, my understanding is that this requirement does not currently extend to contractors performing roadway dead-animal removal for VDOT, and that appears to leave a significant gap.”
She called for the establishment of a clear statewide policy requiring deceased domestic dogs and cats to be scanned for a microchip before disposal.
She said she has heard back from a few offices that gave their condolences but said they aren’t able to help. VDOT’s Freedom of Information Act officer, who Hunsicker requested more information from, said that the incident was not within VDOT’s records.
Dianna Brown, program manager with the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies, said that from an animal-welfare perspective, “this case raises an important gap.”
“A microchip is intended to provide a way to identify an animal and reunite it with its owner, and failing to scan a deceased animal can mean that an owner may never know with certainty what happened to their pet,” Brown said.
She said the suggestion to “check the landfill” is “especially concerning from a compassionate and animal-welfare standpoint.” She said the organization has not addressed a situation similar to this one but that she believes there is value in examining this.
‘Bigger than just my family’
Hunsicker said in an interview that with the area’s proximity to I-81 and I-581, “there’s no way” that this has not happened to other families with pets.
“I believe this is bigger than just my family,” she told the city council. “I want to create a process so that no other family is left with uncertainty when a microchip could have potentially provided some answers.”
Hunsicker said her family hasn’t given up all hope of finding Scooby, because she’s “seen stranger things happen with pets.” But she’s not actively searching like she was before she heard from VDOT. Hunsicker’s family does include another dog, Sage, and two cats, Pippa and Johnson.
Hunsicker said she’s grateful for all the help her neighborhood and her family have offered in the search for Scooby — comments on Facebook and messages from neighbors they hadn’t met, people who still say they’re looking for Scooby every day, and neighbors who walked and drove around the area searching with her.
“Whether Scooby was that dog or not, this should not happen to another family. No family should live with ‘pretty sure.’ If it was Scooby, we deserve to know. If it wasn’t Scooby, another family deserves to know, and if a microchip can provide the answer, I believe we have a responsibility to give them that chance.”
