Montréal, March 16, 2022 – Yesterday evening, the petition introduced at the National Assembly calling to ban declawing and other non-therapeutic surgeries on companion animals received a favourable response from the government.
Here is a loosely translated excerpt from the official response letter from Québec Minister of Agriculture, André Lamontagne, to Simon Jolin-Barrette, Government House Leader:
“Taking into account the latest scientific advances and the positions of stakeholders, the regulation will propose to prohibit, except for medical reasons, the following surgeries: devocalization, caudectomy (tail docking) and onyxectomy (declawing) performed on a cat or dog, as well as ear cropping in dogs. The draft regulation is expected to be made public by summer 2022.”
“The Montreal SPCA has been working for several years to make declawing and other non-therapeutic surgeries a thing of the past. As a member of the Association Québécoise des SPA et SPCA (AQSS), we were among the organizations consulted by the government prior to yesterday’s announcement,” explains Sophie Gaillard, Director of Animal Advocacy and Legal Affairs at the Montreal SPCA. “We of course advocated for a ban and we can only applaud this decision.”
The Montreal SPCA would like to thank everyone who contributed to this important advancement in animal welfare in Québec by signing and sharing the petition.
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Source: Montreal SPCA
Media contact: Anita Kapuscinska, Senior Consultant, Corporate Development and Media Relations, Montréal SPCA, 514-656-2760, anitak@spca.com.
About the Montréal SPCA – Founded in 1869, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (now known simply as the Montréal SPCA) was the first animal-welfare organization in Canada. Today, the Montreal SPCA is the largest animal protection organization in Quebec, speaking on behalf of animals wherever there is ignorance, cruelty, exploitation, or neglect.
