Animal advocates outraged after Longueuil police shoot deer 13 times
Posted March 2, 2023 1:01 pm.
Last Updated March 2, 2023 6:31 pm.
A police intervention near Michel-Chartrand Park in Longueuil, on February 19, has animal rescue organizers upset and has raised a number of questions about the methods used.
On February 19, a concerned resident called 911 about a deer stuck in the fence of a residential yard.
When Longueuil police arrived they say they found a deer in pain with two broken legs.
Upon consultation with the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, wildlife experts advised them to kill the deer.
The officer shot the deer a total of 13 times during a half-hour period, which has outraged animal advocates, who insist the death was inhumane.
Who is to blame?
A resident who filmed the incident happening in her backyard can be heard commenting that “it makes no sense that they’re using a revolver and shooting so many times to kill the deer,” which she says remained alive for far too long and was also a fawn.
A few other neighbours also filmed the incident and have shared videos on social media, denouncing the tactics used by the police saying it was barbaric. They say that officers took about fifty minutes to finish off the suffering animal.
“We were really in a state of panic, not knowing what is happening. If the police would have come to explain to us what is happening probably the panic would have been much less,” said Krystel Lilou.
Krystel Lilou. (Photo Credit: Alyssia Rubertucci, CityNews)
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Longueuil police insist they were following protocol and acting on the advice of the Ministry of Wildlife, which gave its approval.
They tell CityNews in a statement: “Police were authorized by Wildlife Protect to kill the seriously injured animal. The shots were fired according to the directives of Longueuil police, about one meter away, in order to put an end to the suffering of the animal. For some unexplained reason, the animal continued to move after each shot fired.”
Animal rescue organizations ultimately say the blame lies with the Ministry and not the police officer who was just following orders to put the animal out of its pain and didn’t have the training to do so.
“I would not blame either the police officer or the police service of Longueuil for that matter, because these people are not trained for that,” said Steven Amorosa, Sauvetage Animal Rescue agent. “I mean, they’re trained to handle people, not deal with animals. And also the weapons that they have are not powerful enough to put an animal of that size down unless they really know how to, where, and how to shoot it.”
Steven Amorosa, Sauvetage Animal Rescue agent. (Photo Credit: Alyssia Rubertucci, CityNews)
Amorosa continued by saying, “I would have let someone who’s qualified to put a real diagnosis on the animals say, listen, he looks bad and he looks really in bad shape, but there’s something we could have done. Maybe pull him out of this situation, out of the fence, and then bring him to a place where they could have cared for him.”
The Ministry of Wildlife and Parks says, “Wildlife Protection works regularly with police forces across Quebec. Sûreté du Québec police officers can act as wildlife protection officers. However, this is not the case for municipal police officers, who must, in such circumstances, request authorization to kill an animal from the Wildlife Protection Québec.”
Longueuil police have since said, “the shots were not fired in bursts over a period of about 30 minutes.”
Ongoing debate
Michel-Chartrand Park has been making news headlines for some time now as a legal battle has been unfolding between the City of Longueuil and animal rights advocates over the deer population.
Longueuil says that the park’s deer overpopulation has increased dramatically over the past few years and is threatening its biodiversity. According to wildlife experts the park can only support 10 to 15 deer, but currently has over 100, which is causing environmental degradation.
The city defends the culling of deer as an acceptable and necessary solution to the overpopulation, but animal advocates have gone to court to argue that capturing and relocating the animals would be a preferable solution.
The city of Longueuil had planned to hunt the deer last fall to address the problem, but a judge halted that process until at least April.
