Brooks Animal Law Digest

On November 14th, the Quebec Court of Appeal ordered the City of Longueuil to suspend its plans to cull the deer in Michel-Chartrand Park until the appeal filed by Sauvetage Animal Rescue can be heard on its merits. In their decision, the Honourable Justices Jacques J. Levesque, Stephen W. Hamilton, and Michel Beaupré stated that “to the extent that the case on the merits proceeds expeditiously, the harm to the public interest alleged by the city should not worsen, while the harm alleged by the appellants if the deer cull were to commence would become irreparable” (SPCA translation). The trial on the merits will be heard by the Superior Court in Longueuil on April 24, 25, and 26, 2023.

The City of Longueuil suspended a deer cull planned for fall 2022 pending resolution of a lawsuit filed by Sauvetage Animal Rescue (see Issue 17, Litigation Updates). Louis-Pascal Cyr, a spokesperson for the City, stated that the City will not proceed with the capture and euthanasia of approximately seventy deer until the court makes a decision on the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims the City’s culling plans are “unnecessary and cruel slaughter.” Read more here.

Animal Justice has filed a complaint with Quebec’s Police Ethics Commissioner, calling for an investigation into the conduct of a Longueuil police officer who shot an injured deer thirteen times over half an hour until the deer eventually died. The complaint alleges that the officer's conduct breached the “Code of Ethics of Quebec Police Officers” by using greater force than was necessary. The police claim the deer had two broken legs and needed to be euthanized, but the repeated shooting with a low-caliber weapon likely caused additional pain and prolonged suffering which was inhumane and avoidable. Causing harm to animals is illegal under provincial and federal animal cruelty laws.

Longueuil, a city on Montreal’s South Shore, has recommenced its plans to kill most of the deer in Michel-Chartrand Park. Action was suspended in June pending a decision on a lawsuit filed by Sauvetage Animal Rescue that the cull was unnecessary and cruel (see Issue 19, Litigation Updates). The previous plan was to use a captive bolt gun, which critics argued would carry a high risk of suffering given the impossibility of immobilizing a wild animal before stunning them (see Issue 17, Litigation Updates and article by the Director of the Montreal Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals Sophie Gaillard). Sauvetage Animal Rescue proposed capturing and moving the deer; however, this was rejected by a University of Montreal veterinary school ethics committee, which claimed that it would be unsafe for the deer and the people handling them (see interview here). The city is now planning to use crossbows. Read more here and here.

Sauvetage Animal Rescue and citizen Florence Meney, represented by lawyer Anne-France Goldwater, have filed a petition in the Superior Court of Quebec seeking to stop the City of Longueuil from carrying out a plan to cull deer in the fall of 2022. The petition seeks judicial review of the City’s decision to cull white-tailed deer living in Michel Chartrand Park, as well as an order to suspend implementation of the deer cull until the legal challenge has been decided. The court petition follows statements made in November 2021 by Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier, who said the City would capture and kill all but ten to fifteen deer out of the population of seventy individuals. One week after the petition was filed, the Montreal Society for the Prevention of Animal Cruelty (SPCA) filed for leave to intervene in the case. If intervention is granted, the Montreal SPCA will argue (i) that the City did not fulfill a legal obligation to consult an animal welfare organization prior to making the decision, (ii) the method chosen to kill the deer by using a captive bolt gun carried a high risk of suffering, and (iii) that sterilizing or castrating the deer should have been considered. Read the Montreal SPCA announcement here, and read more here.

The Quebec Superior Court denied the request for an extension of the safeguard order issued this past spring regarding the City of Longueuil’s plans to cull over sixty deer in Michel-Chartrand Park. Anne-France Goldwater, lawyer for Sauvetage Animal Rescue, a group of advocates opposing the hunt, requested the extension on September 28th, 2022. The Montreal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), an intervenor in the case, argued that the City of Longueuil’s proposed culling method, use of a bow-and-arrow, raises animal welfare concerns and urged the consideration of non-lethal methods such as sterilization or chemical contraception. The Montreal SPCA plans to appeal the decision.

On November 25th, the Quebec Court of Appeal heard an appeal from the Montreal SPCA and Sauvetage Animal Rescue regarding the culling of deer in Longueuil’s Michel-Chartrand Park. The City of Longueuil will not be permitted to proceed with the culling until the Court of Appeal’s decision has been made. The Superior Court had recently refused to order the suspension of the deer cull planned this fall by the city, but the Quebec Court of Appeal granted the request of the SPCA and Sauvetage Animal Rescue to appeal the verdict. The Court of Appeal has not provided any information concerning when it will issue its decision.

On April 25th, the Quebec Superior Court heard experts' testimonies in the on-going case about how to deal ethically with the overpopulation of deer at Michel-Chartrand park in Longueuil. The deer have tripled in numbers since 2017, and experts say the park can only sustain fifteen animals. The plaintiffs in the case insist that the municipality has not considered all options and that the plan to cull the deer is irrational and unreasonable. The case against the city is being heard for the first time since last fall, when the Quebec Court of Appeal ordered the city to wait before allowing the hunting of the deer.

Earlier this year, the Superior Court of Quebec refused to order the suspension of a deer cull planned by the City of Longueuil for this fall. On October 19th, the Quebec Court of Appeal granted the Montreal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) leave to appeal that decision. In doing so, the Honourable Justice Stephen W. Hamilton of the Quebec Court of Appeal recognized “that the situation is exceptional and that it is in the best interests of justice that leave to appeal be granted” (SPCA translation). The appeal is scheduled to be heard on November 25th at the Court of Appeal in Montreal.

Following their convictions in April 2022 (See Issue 13 Spotlights, Litigation Updates; Issue 16 Spotlights, Litigation Updates), eleven activists will return to court in Longueuil for sentencing on December 19th to 21st. The eleven activists were arrested after they entered Porgreg pig farm in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, near Montreal in December 2019. After trial, all eleven activists arrested were convicted of criminal break and enter and obstructing police. One of the activists, Jenny McQueen, stated that the activists are keen to make statements during the sentencing hearing describing their motives, what they witnessed, and how their experience continues to affect them. The owner of the farm and the worker present during the action will have the opportunity to make a victim impact statement. See McQueen’s explanatory post here.