Animal shelter packed with abandoned pets as Quebec July 1 moving day looms
Mon Jun 4, 4:23 PM
By Nelson Wyatt
MONTREAL (CP) - Cats peer from their cages, their plaintive meowing echoing through the large room. Furry paws dart out to bat playfully at visitors.
In another room, dogs bounce about their pens, barking with gusto as if to get people's attention - and maybe a new home. "Cats are piling up," says Pierre Barnoti, executive director of Montreal's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as he surveys his feline charges in the society's west-end headquarters.
The tabby tide is being blamed on Quebec's annual July 1 moving day, when the province becomes the one part of the country where moving vans outnumber Canada Day parade floats.
In 1973, Quebec law was amended to make all leases end on July 1, presumably to prevent families' lives from being disrupted by moving during the school year.
Besides resulting in a cacophony of straining, grunting movers, the July 1 moving day also means a flood of animals being dropped off at shelters or being left to fend for themselves.
Recent arrivals at the SPCA have jumped to 60 to 80 animals per day from about 20 to 30 animals per day - about 65 per cent of them cats.
"Montreal landlords are extremely difficult in accepting people with pets," lamented Barnoti. "I believe in Ontario it is forbidden to discriminate against pet owners. In Quebec, it is practically a standard clause in every lease - no pets allowed.
"A lot of people who have given notice to move discover they cannot find a dwelling that will take their pets so the animals are sadly dumped at the SPCA."
In previous years, moving vans have even made pit stops at the shelter to drop off animals.
But Martin Messier, a spokesman with the Quebec Landlords Association, acknowledges many landlords don't allow pets but that trend has some roots in how people look after their furry friends.
"You have to understand that when (the landlord) does accept pets the problem is never the pet itself, the problem is with the owner of the pet," says Messier, who is himself a pet owner.
Sometimes when pets are left alone, they disturb other tenants, he said. As well, owners do not properly clean up after them when they take them outside in some cases.
Messier also pointed out landlords tell people of their pet policies before they sign their lease.
"You can still shop and find units where you have the right to have animals," he said. "This is still available."
Barnoti says the SPCA scrambled to accommodate new arrivals this year and quickly pressed 300 foster families into service. A mobile home is being brought in to handle more cages.
"But we know it's a very short-lived reprieve before we are flooded again."
So far it's mainly cats and dogs. In the past the SPCA has had to deal with exotic critters like parrots and iguanas - and even a black panther.
The organization spent $14,000 to save the sleek jungle cat, whose owner had its teeth pulled and claws removed. He decided the big cat wasn't for him when it urinated on his sofa. It now lives in a zoo.
Barnoti acknowledges there's still a lot of educating to do about pet ownership. The amazement is still evident in his voice when he recounts the tale of the man who came in and wanted to rent a dog for two weeks to amuse his children on a camping trip. The man left the SPCA empty handed.
People have to realize that they're in for a long-term commitment when they adopt an animal because the animal will always be dependent on the owner.
"If you are not prepared to devote the time, the energy, do not adopt," he said, pointing out the stress of abandonment can cause 75 per cent of an animal's immune system to shut down and make it sick.
Pet ownership is not a lark, he insisted.
"It's not a right, it's a privilege that comes with a lot of responsibility."
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