The Court of Appeal grants a reprieve to the white-tailed deer in Michel-Chartrand Park in Longueuil: it prohibits the City from launching its hunting party until the opponents’ case has been heard by the Superior Court, in next April.
It thus accepts the request of the organization Sauvetage Animal Rescue and the SPCA of Montreal, which opposed a first judgment of the Superior Court, rendered last October, refusing them such a stay.
Longueuil wanted to carry out this fall the crossbow slaughter of deer, which are overpopulated in the popular park, to keep only about fifteen – there would currently be 108, in an area of less than two kilometers squares.
According to the City, this situation creates a biological imbalance in the wooded area due to intensive deer browsing. Other issues: risk of disease transmission, damage to neighboring properties and risk of collisions with cars.
On October 4, Judge Andres Garin authorized Longueuil to start its felling operation without delay. If this operation were delayed, he said, the problem of deer overpopulation would be aggravated and the resulting detrimental effects would be contrary to the public interest.
But for the judges of the Court of Appeal, it is rather the death of the deer that would be an irreparable consequence. In the event that the Superior Court renders a decision against the felling in April 2023, it would be too late.
The magistrates therefore sided with lawyer Anne-France Goldwater, representing Sauvetage Animal Rescue, who stressed that there was no urgency to carry out the slaughter of deer quickly, especially since the City has done nothing for several years to tackle the problem of overpopulation.