Cornwall ON – Montreal is going to the dogs…and cats…It’s not the ill kept roads, like Highway 20 where I had a chunk of roadway flipped up into my windshield causing the uproar, or the traffic jams, language issues, and ridiculous parking costs downtown that have people up in arms, but people from across the city and province are upset and protesting over the City’s use of for Profit animal shelters instead of having a city managed or non-profit group running the shelter with key rules in place governing how the animals are treated.
One group is even suggesting a tourism boycott of the city if they don’t take action. Montreal has responded by tabling new bylaws regarding pet ownership.
Richard Deschamps, executive committee member responsible for citizen services, announced that the city would table a bylaw that would standardize the rules for animal care and control, including limiting the number of non-sterilized animals per home, automatic sterilization for all stray cats and dogs, mandatory licences for all cats and dogs and making it illegal to leave any animal anywhere other than at a shelter, placing the onus on the owner for registration, sterilization, vaccination, adoption or euthanasia.
Quebec already is notorious for its “puppy mills” which can be anything from home breeders to larger operations which release in many cases unhealthy puppies at cut rate prices.
It’s interesting looking at the two extremes, the Quebec scenario where the care of unwanted pets has essentially been privatized to the extremes of the Ontario system which have seen pet shelters become cash cows for vets.
What do you think? What are the solutions to the unwanted pet issues we have here in Canada? You can post your comments below.
I’d take exception to the City making a By-Law as to how many unstrerilized cats and dogs a homeowner would be allowed to have in their home. If we allow this legislation to pass then don’t be surprised at a later date if they limit the number of children you can have. Shades of 1984.