In more than four decades of practice, I have learned that our laws do not always guarantee justice. Fortunately, the laws are changing. However, for those who still escape the protection of the law, the consequences can be fatal.
It’s not just humans who can be treated unfairly, but animals too. In particular, in Quebec, our government prefers the extermination of animals that manage to live around us instead of managing overpopulation in a more humane way. This indifference continues despite the latest findings1 scientists regarding sentience2 animal, or that animals can feel emotions like joy and fear, like humans.
We must admit our collective failure in managing the biodiversity of Michel-Chartrand Park in Longueuil, where more than 100 deer will be killed with crossbows next fall.
We have failed in our duty to protect this animal community which wanders from park to park, their natural habitat having been greatly reduced by our presence.
It’s not just local animal rights activists who are becoming aware of this cruelty. This story struck a chord – Radio-Canada’s humorous magazines made fun of Longueuil’s aberrant plan. The idea of killing an animal “quickly and gently” by impaling it with arrows is absurd to the point of being satirical, as pointed out by Bye bye 2023. same for me Infoman.
The deer have also found allies on an international scale, including Brigitte Bardot, who perfectly grasped the ethical dilemma: “At a time when biodiversity is more in danger than ever, understand the anger and indignation that your decision. It is our common duty to pacify our relationship with nature,” she writes.
An arrow in the heart
We recognize that tens of thousands of deer in Quebec can be legally killed each year by hunters for subsistence. Our government supervises these activities. The issue is not to know whether the killing of an animal cannot be ethical, but rather to understand that killing an animal without a valid reason is contrary to all ethics.
There Animal Welfare and Safety Act represents a step in the right direction. These long-awaited reforms improved the protection of animals by recognizing their sentience. Quebec needs to rehabilitate its image, tainted by puppy mills, roadside zoos, horse slaughterhouses and other questionable activities that rely on animal exploitation.
The crossbow hunt planned for the fall in Longueuil will create a troubling precedent. Yet our coalition handed out non-violent alternatives on a silver platter, including relocation, sterilization, deworming, and veterinary care – at no cost.
Let’s not forget that even if a deer is shot directly in the heart by an arrow, it still suffers for several minutes before dying. To err is human, the hunter who misses his target suffers several hours before his victim is delivered by death.
It could be possible to hit that same deer with a sedative dart and perform an on-the-spot vasectomy in just 15 minutes3. Females, on the other hand, can be treated with hormone therapy which prevents them from conceiving for several years.
There are arguments that are easier to understand than others.
Media coverage of pitbull-type dogs, whose right to exist I have defended in recent years, took a burlesque turn where any scientific argument was drowned out in panic. But at Michel-Chartrand Park, the problem is less complicated and often described as a “nuisance”. With all due respect to Mayor Catherine Fournier, Longueuil’s solution to resolve this nuisance is primitive and brutal. Just because someone is a nuisance doesn’t mean they deserve to be executed.
It would be better to simply recognize that the park constitutes their heritage, then act to prevent the herd from reaching unsustainable numbers, while respecting the lives of those who make up this community.
Perhaps some of us are not yet ready to recognize that the animals that live with us in urban environments are also sentient beings? But recent scientific discoveries tell us that they are certainly not insensitive. And in Quebec law, they are definitely no longer considered insignificant. Are we ready to face the implications of animal sentience?
1. Read “Octopuses are sentient beings capable of feeling pain, new study finds”
2. Read “The word sentience enters Larousse 2020”
3. Read “Solving Staten’s Island Deer Problem with a Snip and a Stitch” (subscription)
What do you think ? Participate in the dialogue
reference: www.lapresse.ca