Pets killed on roads will have to be collected, identified and their owners notified by the Highways Agency, the Transport Minister John Hayes said.
Jude Devine, of Sheffield, inspired the campaign after being told her poodle had died – four months after his body was found on the M62.
As part of Treasury austerity measures, mandatory scanning of canine traffic victims for electronic tags and other identifiers was being phased out.
Mr Hayes said it was “absolutely essential” that every possible measure was taken to identify domestic animals killed in road accidents and their owners contacted.
He told MPs: “I have therefore asked the Highways Agency to ensure that indeed they do collect and identify every animal that is killed and contact the owners by whatever practicable means. I have told the Highways Agency that is what I expect. It will be a requirement and this is what will happen. This government does take this extremely seriously.”
The petition debated in Parliament called for:
- Compulsory microchip scanning of all domestic animals retrieved from the highways
- Log reports filed and circulated to both police and dog wardens
- Photographs of pets’ remains to be held with the log report to be used for identification purposes
Mr Hayes will be writing to Transport for London and local highways authorities across the country to draw attention to the government’s position, because the majority of accidents happen on smaller roads.
A Highways Agency spokesman said: “Clearly it is very distressing when a dog dies on the road and we will always attempt to reunite a dog with its owner where possible, and are currently reviewing our approach to scanning as we want to ensure greater consistency.”