The City of Longueuil will move forward with the felling by crossbow at least a hundred white-tailed deer in the Michel-Chartrand regional park in the fall of 2024.
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“There is danger ahead for our ecosystem,” declared Mayor Catherine Fournier during the announcement at Longueuil city hall on Wednesday.
The deer population has exploded in recent years. It reached 117 last spring, ten times more than the capacity of the ecosystem, which stands at around fifteen at most for a park of this size.
After a long saga which lasted more than two years, the Quebec Court of Appeal rejected, last October, the request of the organization Sauvetage Animal Rescue, which wanted to annul the decision of the Quebec Ministry of Wildlife to authorize the City of Longueuil to cull deer.
The mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier.
Photo Anouk Lebel
The City can therefore request a new permit to proceed with felling. It will launch a call for tenders in the coming months to find a firm of certified professionals who will carry out the controlled crossbow hunting operation.
“We trust the experts and they tell us that crossbow hunting is a completely appropriate method for population control. It is an ecological and not an ideological imperative,” underlined Louis-Pascal Cyr, spokesperson for the City of Longueuil.
- Listen to the interview with Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier on Mario Dumont via QUB radio:
Opposition
Around fifteen demonstrators wanted to make themselves heard at the entrance to town hall to denounce the use of slaughter.
“It’s cruel. There is not a hunter worthy of the name who would agree to kill, as they are going to do, dozens and dozens of baby deer,” denounced Jean Lapierre.
“We will not give up,” he warned.
Around fifteen opponents of the slaughter of white-tailed deer at Michel-Chartrand Park demonstrated at the entrance to Longueuil city hall, where the announcement took place.
Photo Anouk Lebel
A new inventory of the number of animals will have to be made before the City announces a more detailed plan to reduce the herd population to between 10 and 15 individuals.
The Longueuil Agglomeration Police Department will support the City to avoid excesses during the operation, the number of days and costs of which have not been revealed.
Mayor Catherine Fournier is also under police surveillance due to threats related to this matter.
The City of Longueuil is not the only one having to deal with the overpopulation of white-tailed deer. The Société des establishments de plein air du Québec (Sépaq) slaughtered nearly 400 animals in the Îles-de-Boucherville and Mont-Saint-Bruno national parks this fall.
A long saga
December 2023: the City of Longueuil presents its felling plan for fall 2024.
October 2023: Sauvetage Animal Rescue is appealing the Superior Court’s decision to allow crossbow hunting, upheld by the Quebec Court of Appeal.
October 2022: the Superior Court rejects the request of the organization Sauvetage Animal Rescue.
May 2022: Lawyer Anne-France Goldwater is suing the City of Longueuil on behalf of the organization Sauvetage Animal Rescue to prevent “the massacre of white-tailed deer.”
November 2020: Sylvie Parent’s administration announces the capture and euthanasia of around fifteen deer at Michel-Chartrand Park. An agreement was reached with the Sauvetage Animal Rescue organization for the movement of deer, but the idea was rejected by an ethics committee.