Lawyer and animal rights activist Anne-France Goldwater returns to the charge in the Longueuil deer case. Qualifying the decision of the new administration of Catherine Fournier of “massacre”, the lawyer does not exclude turning to the courts to stop the euthanasia of animals.
“It’s cruelty. Basically, we want to assassinate Bambi when there are several other solutions on the table. Elsewhere in Canada and the United States, there are plenty of professionals who control or move populations. It’s as if there was right here where we don’t want to listen to reason ”, insists Me Goldwater in interview with Press.
She says the report published Tuesday by the City of Longueuil is “manifestly inadequate”. “I read the report and with respect, their plan is doomed. This massacre is not a long-term solution, especially since if we proceed, we will come back to square one in one or two years, because the females will start to reproduce with even more energy ” , supports the activist.
On Monday, Mayor Catherine Fournier announced that her administration would eliminate the majority of deer from Michel-Chartrand Park to bring the herd back to what the ecosystem can support, from 70 currently to between 10 and 15. His cabinet says it follows the recommendations contained in the report of the round table set up by the City, which concludes that euthanasia is the only solution to control the proliferation of white-tailed deer in the park.
It reads that “the only viable option in the short term to obtain sustainable results is to proceed from 2022 to the reduction of the size of the herd by a method of capture and euthanasia in order to reach the support capacity of the park” . The committee did not choose the option of moving the deer, due to the high risk of mortality.
“For me, it shows that they don’t read anything! The scientific literature, especially in English, is very rich on relocation. When planning population moves, it takes up-to-date scientific data, which they do not have. And even if half of the deer died in transport, it would still be better than if we killed them all ”, denounces Mr.e Goldwater.
Fournier “stays the course”
Joined by Press, the mayoress of Longueuil, she does not intend to stop so far. She recalls that her decision “stems from the consultation of citizens and specialists, including biologists, and is based on science, in addition to taking into account the ethical issues linked to the living conditions of animals”.
We intend to stay the course and act to ensure the ecological balance of Parc Michel-Chartrand.
Catherine Fournier, Mayor of Longueuil
Anne-France Goldwater, she hopes to be able to meet the new mayor before going further, to “discuss solutions”, as she had done with the previous mayor, Sylvie Parent. Like the City, the lawyer also calls on spirits to “calm down”. “We are not going to save Bambi by threatening a firefighter or a mayor,” she illustrates, referring to the climate of tension in this issue.
In November 2020, under the Parent administration, an agreement for the movement of deer from Michel-Chartrand Park was reached, following a virtual meeting between representatives of Quebec, Longueuil and the organization Sauvetage Animal Rescue . But in the months that followed, the Animal Use Ethics Committee, chaired by professors from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Montreal, blocked their transport, saying it was worried about the “risk. of injuries and very high myopathy ”when transporting deer.
With Jean-Thomas Léveillé, Press