The St-Tite Western Festival was back in court on Tuesday morning, trying to get rid of the action taken by the Droit animalier Québec (DAQ) community, which wants to have two activities of its popular rodeo banned.
DAQ attacks the treatment reserved for young animals during the “roping of the calf” and the “terracing of the steer.” “They live in suffering and distress, alleges the organization.
He asks the Court for an injunction to prohibit these tests.
The St-Tite Festival did not want to wait for the trial. He asked a judge to dismiss the action immediately, arguing that DAQ lacks the interest required to make these claims.
It is up to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Quebec (MAPAQ) to act to enforce its Animal Welfare and Safety Act if it deems that it is being violated. through rodeo activities. The ministry is studying the issue and set up an advisory committee in 2018, Ms.e Frédéric Laflamme on behalf of the Festival.
We cannot say that the government is doing nothing, he insisted.
But “we can’t say that it’s fast,” Judge Marc Paradis of the Superior Court told him during the hearing that took place in Shawinigan.
As for DAQ’s lawyer, Ms.e Anne-Julie Asselin, she launched from the outset that the organization does not seek to represent calves and steers.
“We seek to act in the public interest. The State or the MAPAQ does not have a monopoly on the public interest. »
Animal welfare has become a societal concern, said the lawyer, adding that animals in Quebec are no longer considered “goods”.
And then, she says, impossible to know if the MAPAQ will do anything: it has already received reports in the past and has not acted.
She recalled that her request for an injunction does not target farmers and breeders: she only targets certain activities of the festival.
Me Asselin pleaded that other groups have been recognized as having the necessary interest to act in the past, recalling in particular the Longueuil deer file, which the City wanted to put down. It was an animal welfare group that led the fight.
Judge Paradis took the request under advisement and promised his judgment “as soon as possible. »