The Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec (MFFP) wants to adopt a Wildlife Policy for Quebec. The Montreal SPCA supports this initiative and is encouraging the public to share their opinion by taking part in the online public consultation. This is your opportunity to make yourselves heard prior to the drafting of this policy. Join those who have already voiced their opinion, before December 31, 2019:
Here are the Montreal SPCA’s answers to the various issues raised in this consultation (feel free to use this text to answer question 6):
- Ensuring that the notion of animal welfare is included in the policy.
- Adopting regulations that provide basic protection for wildlife. Among other measures, this should include adopting:
– Requirements, like those in effect in all other Canadian provinces, for mandatory set-interval trap checks to minimize the agony of animals caught in traps.
– Stricter requirements for the types of traps permitted. For example, prohibiting the use of jaw-type traps and drowning systems, in which animals with significant respiratory capacities take several hours to die.
– Greater regulation regarding the kind of bait used in hunting. For example, requiring hunters to remove salt blocks used to attract moose.
– A ban on trophy hunting (i.e. the killing of animals for hunting trophies).
- Promoting harmonious cohabitation with wildlife, including urban wildlife, via:
– Public awareness
– The use of ethical wildlife management and population control methods
– The construction of wildlife crossings (in the form of bridges and tunnels) designed to provide safe passage for animals crossing highways
- Promoting evidence-based wildlife management by ensuring, for example:
– Collaboration between the government and the scientific community
– Investment in scientific research to develop ethical wildlife management and population control methods to prevent improvised solutions (as is currently the case in the Charlevoix region with the slaughter of wolves to protect a caribou herd).
- Supporting habitat conservation efforts to avoid putting additional stress on animal populations that are already disrupted by climate change.
