Multiple rallies took place across Quebec on Saturday to highlight the over-population of stray and feral cats. Volunteers are calling on the provincial government to implement concrete measures to manage the problem. The crowds marching along Ste-Catherine Street in downtown Montreal were calling out for help to care for stray and feral cats across Quebec. Danielle Roby sees it as a growing problem in the LaSalle borough where she lives. “I love cats and I take care of homeless cats in my neighbourhood, and I have adopted several over the years,” Roby explained. These cat lovers pay out of pocket to help care for the cats and want standardized government funding. Francine Rivard has been rescuing cats for 25 years. “We do it on our own and we pay from our money. But the government should fund the SPCA,” she said. In a statement, the SPCA says sustained funding for “trap-neuter-return-maintain” programs is very important to contain cat colonies. Rescue groups and volunteers like Marie-Michele Couture can only do so much. “We get them neutered and then they go drop them back at the colony where they’re from,” Couture said. With their estimate of one million stray cats in Quebec, she says a task this big shouldn’t be left to volunteers. “Get more access to help the cats. So a lot of rescues are non-funded by the government. So if they could get some kind of money incentive to help them to take in more cats, that would be helpful for sure,” Couture said. Event co-organizer Josée Dufresne wants provincial pet laws to be more stringent, demanding all cats be sterilized and micro-chipped at a reasonable price. “We are calling for all cats to be spayed or neutered and microchipped,” she said. Patrick de Vos of Organisme Réforme de la Gouvernance des Animaux de Compagnie au Québec says the sale and adoption of cats should be regulated. They’ve started a petition at the National Assembly and have collected more than 6,000 signatures calling for changes to the law. CTV News reached out to the minister responsible for wildlife, Benoît Charrette, but his office declined to comment. Ghislaine Rivard has also been rescuing cats for decades and says the law needs to be changed and enforced “to be responsible for the animals that they have.” “It starts there. And the laws are stupid because they only put a plaster on a big problem that’s already there,” Rivard said. The deadline to sign the petition is April 11.
