Pet sanctuary

Montérégie SPCA will take your unwanted
animal companion but won’t kill it

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Linda Robertson

Age: 66

Occupation: President/founder of the Montérégie SPCA

Bio: This righteous South Shore gal had been volunteering at a local animal shelter, hanging out with other South Shore animal rights folk, when she and her crew became convinced that the area needed its very own SPCA. So in 1989, after a fundraising campaign netted them just enough cash to purchase a van and secure a modest lease, the Montérégie SPCA was born “and as soon as we opened our doors, the animals just came flooding in.” Today located in considerably bigger digs right beside Autoroute 10 in Ste-Angèle-de-Monnoir, people from all over the place stop by to either drop off their unwanted animals or to adopt some of these creatures, because of the Montérégie SPCA’s reputation as a no-kill shelter.

Something many people don’t realize about the SPCA: That it’s completely funded through private donations. “So many people think we’re government-run, or at least financed, but it almost all comes from individuals.”

The number of animals currently residing at the Montérégie SPCA: “Oh, right now we’re full, and when I say we’re full, believe me, we’re full. I guess we must have about 120 dogs and at least 200 cats, not to mention all the cats we have in foster homes. We must get 20 to 30 calls every day just for cats. Ah, it’s beyond belief, it’s a crisis situation in this province.”

Her thoughts on Quebec’s nifty new animal welfare legislation: “It’s lacking in a lot of areas. It’s so difficult to get convictions here in Quebec. You see, after this legislation was passed, they set up this body, ANIMA-Québec, to enforce it. But ANIMA-Québec feels their job is only to educate these people [animal abusers, puppy mill owners etc]. So they go to these horrible puppy mills and tell them how to run them instead of trying to close them down. Yet 99 per cent of these places are all the same; rows and rows of these two-by-two-feet cages stacked on top of one another, barely large enough for the animal to turn around in. The producing dogs are in these cages 24 hours a day, seven days a week, never exercising, frequently lacking in food and water—I mean, the situation is horrendous. The people who operate these things have no accountability to anyone, they don’t even report their revenue to the government. The puppy mill business has mushroomed so much in the 20 years I’ve been doing this. It’s one of the fastest growing industries in Quebec.”

Why that might be: “Because these places are earning, like, $150,000 a year. It’s easier to sell animals now, there are more pet stores and they sell them over the Internet.”

What the average bozo can do to affect the situation: “Stop buying these animals! Don’t buy from these people or from pet stores. Those animals all come from puppy mills!”

Last book read: Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt.

Musical preferences: Sarah McLachlan, Leslie Garrett, Vivaldi.

Words of wisdom: “Animals suffer as humans suffer. They suffer from the heat, the cold, hunger, thirst, loneliness, stress—and never forget that. People don’t realize that animals have feelings.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net