It will have to get rid of 19 cats

Photo courtesy, Stephen Sinclair
Nathalie Doucet guard 21 cats in her garage in Saint-Eustache. The justice will force it to divest 19 of them.

Stéphane Sinclair

Thursday, 1 march 2018 12:30

UPDATE
Thursday, 1 march 2018 12:30

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A woman who home 21 cats in her garage in Saint-Eustache will have to give away or have it euthanized 19, ruled the court.

Nathalie Doucet has lost in the Court of appeal against the City of Saint-Eustache, including a municipal by-law prohibits keeping more than two cats and two dogs per residence.

“I am still in shock. My animals do not bother anyone. They are never out of the house”, she explained.

A clean house

Ms. Doucet was visibly discouraged after the judgment. She will have to find a home for each cat or to euthanize in the next few days. “My cats have more than 12 years, I’ve paid to be sterilized. I expected that they die of their own death,” added Nathalie Doucet.

She regrets that the City did not take into account the cleanliness of the premises or of the fact that the cats are well-fed and well-cared for and that they do not go outside.

30 cats

In 2013, Ms. Doucet had nearly 30 cats. She is now 21. The lady spends approximately $ 600 per month to feed them.

She began to keep in 2005, when she crossed his field of stray kittens whose mother had died. Nathalie Doucet has decided to keep the small. She has been neutered, vaccinated and fed them.

Wishing to comply with the provincial law of 2015 on the new legal status of pets, Nathalie Doucet has made a permit application to the ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Quebec (MAPAQ) in order to be able to keep her cats. After inspection, the department has provided him a certificate of authorization.

The City of Saint-Eustache, however, has disputed his certificate and asked him to sell some of its animals.

Anne-France Goldwater

Ms. Doucet has lost in the first instance. She has appealed the judgment with the assistance of the lawyer Anne-France Goldwater.

Judge Mark Schrager ruled on the legality of the inspections without a warrant and without warning the employees of the City. According to the latter, so that the inspections are illegal, they should be left to the search, the seizure or the search warrant, in addition to being abusive, which was not the case in respect of inspections made in Ms. Doucet.

Anne-France Goldwater does not bring the case to the supreme Court and feared that the cats would have to be euthanized. “Cats are carriers of an infectious disease and cannot be immunized or cured, doubt is to be able to [relocate] because they can contaminate other cats,” has explained to Me Jessika Apollo-Augustus, the office of Me Goldwater.

At the time of writing these lines, the mayor of Saint-Eustache had still not been recalled by The Newspaper.

– In collaboration with mylog.ca