Activists' pitch to avert cull of deer in Quebec park accepted
The mayor of Longueuil, Que., has called off plans to cull half the herd of deer in a city park after a relocation proposal was put forward that would come at no cost to the city and even include free contraception to the remaining deer.
Concerned with overpopulation and dangers to drivers as well as the spread of Lyme disease, the Montreal-area city announced this month it would kill 15 deer in Michel-Chartrand Park.
Officials had reportedly set up cages on Monday in anticipation of trapping the deer and killing them. As they were doing so, lawyer and animal rights activist Anne-France Goldwater, along with Eric Dussault, the director general of the group Sauvetage Animal Rescue, detailed their rescue operation to trap the deer and relocate them to local refuges.
“There are plenty of refuges that are willing to take these deer and give them a normal life with proper veterinary care and food,” Goldwater said.
The plan was presented to the city of Longueuil last Thursday and announced to the media in a news conference Monday afternoon. Goldwater said if the city accepted, she and Dussault's group would cover the entire cost of the operation.
“This is what makes life grand: the animals that have survived our usurpation of their environment,” Goldwater said. “Can we not make some effort out of our moral duty as apex predators to take some care of these animals?”
On Monday evening, Mayor Sylvie Parent posted to Facebook that because of “the threat posed today by certain people to interfere with or even thwart the implementation of the (deer cull) has forced us to consider another option.” She said she has asked the city's general manager to cancel the cull to allow for the relocation in the coming weeks.
Parent said the cull had been approved by the Quebec government and supported by “a large consensus of the scientific community.”
The city said it was necessary to kill 15 deer — roughly half the population in the park — as the herd's growing numbers threatened the ecosystem and if allowed to run rampant, they will spread out through the neighbourhood in search of food. Authorities argued the deer represented a traffic hazard, had damaged neighbouring properties and presented a risk of spreading Lyme disease.
The city had said moving the deer to another location is logistically impractical and could prove to be as deadly as the cull, saying they would not do well in the wild and could spread disease to other animals if taken to a zoo.
However, Dussault said his group, which is funded by its members, has developed a plan to trap and safely relocate half the deer population. The plan would be to quarantine them after trapping them, then to vaccinate them and ensure they are in proper health before they are brought to new habitats.
Goldwater said Longueuil's plan was flawed because thinning out the herd will spur the remaining deer to repopulate even quicker.
Since news of the cull broke, there has been much controversy about Longueuil's plan.
Three people were arrested in connection with death threats against Parent.