As promised, Montreal's SPCA says it will stop providing dog services in the boroughs it serves, now that the city's controversial pit bull ban has been reinstated.
This fall, the SPCA threatened to terminate its service contracts with the nine boorughs it currently serves if the ban was allowed to stand. On Thursday, they made it known that they would be following through on the threat, and would no longer take dogs in as of March 31 — the city's deadline for registering pitbulls and so-called pitbull-type dogs.
The SPCA argues the absence of a breed-specific ban is actually part of their contracts with the boroughs.
Anita Kapuscinska from the SPCA also explains that the ban - and the shelter work they would have to do under such a ban - goes against the organization's beliefs.
"We would be forced to be euthanizing dogs who are behaviourally sound or healthy, and this includes dogs and puppies. This is something that goes completely against our values."
Kapuscinska adds that it would be difficult to find veterinarians at the SPCA or elsewhere willing to euthanize dogs identified as pit bulls - and that given the vagueness of the law, it would be difficult to accurately perform that identification.
"It's a very difficult situation, it's very difficult to determine which dogs do fall under this legislation. We just simply cannot take part in this."
The SPCA has been leading the court fight against Montreal's pit bull rules. Earlier this month, the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned an injunction which suspended the application of the bylaw.
Kapuscinska says she hopes that after the case is decided in Quebec's Superior Court, the SPCA will be able to return to offering the services.
"This isn't a decision we took lightly, and we're hoping that when the hearing is heard in the Superior Court, that will remove the breed-specific legislation and we can reconvene with our existing partners to see if we can change the contracts to what it was before."
The affected boroughs are:
The SPCA will continue offering dog services in the St. Laurent borough, because the contract there is slightly different.