It is ever more frequent, mainly in the big cities, that domestic animals are simply abandoned by their owners during the moving season. One speaks about thousands of animals that are abandoned this way and the City of Montreal, among others, launches awareness campaigns to attenuate this plague.
It seems that about 43,6 % of Quebec households own at least one animal. Also, according to the Société québécoise pour la défense des animaux / the Quebec Society for Animal Protection, almost half of these households keep their pet, on average, for approximately two years.
The fate of a great number of abandoned domestic animals is euthanasia. Alan DeSousa, member of the ‘comité exécutif’ of the City of Montreal, and mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent, has stressed that his borough has put into place a sterilization programme for cats on the loose and he recommends to owners of animals to have their animal sterilized if they cannot take care of their pets. Moreover, he invites the other borough mayors to better inform their citizens about this plague, which continues during moving season, by proposing to take certain measures.