The Montreal SPCA received more than 700 abandoned pets in the first 10 days of June this year -- a hundred animals more than usual.
Every year, Montreal’s SPCA sees hundreds of pets abandoned during the busy summer moving season. This year, however, the organization has been inundated with unwanted animals.
“We are currently in the middle of what we call ‘moving season,’ the weeks before and after July 1st, where the number of animals coming into the Montreal SPCA shelter nearly triples from 600 to 1,600 animals per month,” Alanna Devine, director of animal advocacy at the Montreal SPCA, said in a written statement.
“We know that a significant portion of these animals are abandoned because their families are unable to find affordable rental housing that permits pets.”
According to the SPCA, while one in two Quebec households has a pet, a meagre 4.2 per cent of landlords accept tenants with dogs. The restriction, they say, disproportionately affects low-income households which have less housing options.
To help end pet abandonments, the organization is pushing the Quebec government to ban no-pet clauses from lease agreements. Despite receiving 22,000 signatures on a petition to this effect earlier this year, the Quebec government has so far refused to act.
Such clauses were nixed in Ontario in the 1990s.
“We would really like to see no-pet clauses be something of the past,” SPCA Montreal spokesperson Anita Kapuscinska told CTV Montreal.
While the majority of abandoned pets are cats, the SPCA has also taken in dogs and birds. Out-of-province shelters have been called to help deal with the overflow.
Ninety-five per cent of dogs and 75 per cent of cats generally find new homes, the SPCA says. To adopt an animal, visit spca.com.
With files from CTV Montreal
