As part of my expanded Animal Protection portfolio on Côte Saint-Luc City Council I met with Alanna Devine, the director of Animal Advocacy for the Montreal SPCA.
Let me say from the start how fortunate animal lovers are to have someone such as Alanna in office. I have worked with her since the start of our Côte Saint-Luc Cats Committee more than three years ago and she has been extremely helpful. A lawyer by education, she handles media relations, public outreach, government relations and any complaints surrounding cruelty to animals.
Alanna was very pleased to learn that Mayor Anthony Housefather had created a specific portfolio dealing with Animal Protection. I will work with her to try and encourage other municipalities in the province, or at least the island of Montreal, to do the same thing. If we are successful, I would like to host a Municipal Animal Protection Summit at our City Hall.
One of the issues Alanna wants to resolve with the City of Montreal is legislation to prohibit horse-drawn carriages. That is not something which really touches upon Côte Saint-Luc, but if we can assemble a suburban coalition of Animal Protection councillors we can support her. New York's new Mayor, Bill de Blasio, wants to remove horse-drawn carriages from the city. In The Verge Online, he called them "inhumane" and "not appropriate for the year 2014." A petition signed by more than 4,500 people called for the horses to be replaced by electric replicas of vintage cars, something de Blasio called "a cleaner, safer, wiser, more humane alternative that will be very appealing to tourists.
Pet stores are also on Alanna’s agenda. Toronto and Richmond (B.C) have passed legislation banning the sale of dogs and cats from pet stores. The Montreal SPCA would like municipalities to restrict pet stores from selling dogs, cats and rabbits that only come from shelters, humane societies and certified breeders.They also must be sterilized. The borough of Verdun has already done so. At the present time we have only one pet store in CSL and that is Aqua Tropicale at Decarie Square. While this store generally sells fish, turtles and birds, I have seen cats in cages there. Management promised me that these were homeless cats and my research indicated this was correct. If we can take some of the homeless cats we rescue and find them good homes via a pet store I am okay with that.
We also spoke about urban wildlife and a question which comes my way often: how to get rid of animals like raccoons and skunks from one’s property. She cited companies like Skedaddle Wildlife, which can remove these animals humanely.
The poisoning of animals remains a problem in society and this something that I have very sadly been witness to with cats in our community. It is something the SPCA wants to take on more aggressively and I am in their corner.
When I left the building I visited some of the dogs and cats available for adoption (there was even a pig). Staffer Mallory Moreau introduced me to Kiwi, a German Shepherd that was rescued from a puppy mill. Someone who works at the SPCA fell in love and adopted him.
The City of Côte Saint-Luc, like all municipalities, has a contract with the SPCA. At our February 10, 2014 council meeting we signed a new agreement for 2014.
