The slaughter of Longueuil deer in Michel-Chartrand Park will have to wait. The Quebec Court of Appeal on Wednesday granted a reprieve to opponents of the controlled hunt that the City of Longueuil intended to carry out to reduce the deer population.
In their decision, the judges of the Court of Appeal order the City to suspend the deer culling operation until the case can be heard on the merits by the Superior Court, from April 24 to 26. .
The Court of Appeal thus ruled in favor of the SPCA and the organization Sauvetage Animal Rescue, represented by Me Anne-France Goldwater, who had been refused a reprieve by the Superior Court on October 4th. The Court of Appeal considers that the trial judge erred in his analysis of the inconvenience suffered by the City in the event of a stay.
“The summary evidence shows that the deer whelping period begins in the spring. It is therefore likely that the livestock population will be relatively stable by then and that, insofar as the merits proceed quickly, the damage to the public interest invoked by the City should not worsen, whereas that the damage that the appellants would incur if the deer slaughter began would become irreparable”, underlined the judges.
The decision of the Court of Appeal delighted the Montreal SPCA. ” [La SPCA] is relieved to know the deer in Michel-Chartrand Park are safe until the case can be heard on the merits,” commented Me Sophie Gaillard, acting director general of the Montreal SPCA, in a press release. The stay obtained will allow the SPCA to submit to the court legal questions that it deems important concerning animal rights and the status of “sentient beings” that the Civil Code has recognized since 2015.
“We are maintaining our position and we are letting the legal process take its course,” said Camille Desrosiers-Laferrière, the press secretary for the mayoress of Longueuil Catherine Fournier.
Remember that last July, the City of Longueuil announced its intention to conduct a controlled crossbow hunt in Michel-Chartrand Park, where deer are in excess. The City invoked the public interest in this case given the damage caused by deer to the vegetation and biodiversity of the park.
An inventory carried out by the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP) would have shown that the number of deer in Michel-Chartrand Park would now reach 108 animals, while the park can only support a limited number of deer, i.e. between 10 and 15.