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The body of a dog hit and killed by a vehicle in Christchurch was placed in a skip by an NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi contractor called out to recover it.
NZTA has now told its contractors to handle incidents involving dead animals with greater sensitivity and care.
NZTA maintenance and operations area manager Mark Pinner said the correct procedure was to identify the dog and contact the local council’s animal services team so the owner could be located.
The incident came to light after the dog’s owner posted about it on social media.
King, a Staffordshire cross, was hit and killed on Tunnel Rd (State Highway 76) near Ferry Rd, Woolston, in late April after he went missing from his property.
A member of the public moved the dog off the road and reported the incident.
Tunnel Rd is a state highway under NZTA jurisdiction.
The agency dispatched Downer New Zealand, its contractor for North Canterbury – which includes Christchurch – to recover King’s body.
The worker who collected King transported the body to Downer’s Harewood yard and contacted a supervisor for instructions on what to do next.
NZTA said the supervisor instructed the worker to place the body in an Envirowaste skip.
“This instruction was wrong,” Pinner said.
He said Downer crews were expected to check for a collar or microchip and contact the local council’s animal services team so the owner could be identified and notified.
Pinner said those steps were not followed on this occasion, and King’s body was later compacted and sent to landfill as waste.
In his post, King’s owner said he "has no words" and was in "disbelief" after learning what had happened.
He has since received an apology, and Pinner said "several steps are being taken to make sure this never happens again".
In the week after King went missing, his owner was actively searching and posting daily on social media, and had also made contact with Downer.
Pinner said the Downer supervisor who gave the instruction to place the dog in the skip contacted the owner two days later, took full responsibility, and apologised for it.
Following changes to NZTA’s state highway maintenance contracts in May, Downer is no longer the contractor for the North Canterbury region.