Longueuil can cull over 100 deer: judge rules

The City of Longueuil has gotten the green light to proceed with the culling of around 100 deer in Michel-Chartrand Park, after a three-year battle with citizens and organizations opposing the killings.

According to the ruling by the Quebec Superior Court – the deer will be killed by crossbow.

Judge Bernard Jolin dismissed the application filed by the animal rescue service and citizen Florence Menery in 2022 to cancel the permit allowing the slaughter of the animals.

In his ruling, Jolin wrote – that the latter failed to convince him of the quote unreasonable nature of the decision to proceed with the controlled hunting of the deer with crossbows.

Additionally, the city of Longueuil and the ministry in charge did everything in their power to ensure the controlled hunting operation would be carried out with respect for the deer’s sensitivity – allowing their lives to be ended as gently and as quickly as possible.

In 2020, Longueuil put in place a plan to capture and euthanize 15 overpopulated deer – citizen outrage led to a concertation table and concluded at the time that rather than relocate the deer, they should be euthanized.

In July 2022, the executive committee of the City of Longueuil decided that the white-tailed deer population was “far exceeding” the capacity of Michel-Chartrand Park. It, therefore, applied to the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife, and Parks for a permit to “carry out a controlled deer hunt”.

“There is nothing to suggest that this method is the cruelest and most painful way of putting these deer to death”, he continues.

The City of Longueuil wrote in a press release that it “welcomes [Thursday’s] decision by the Superior Court, presided over by the Honourable Judge Bernard Jolin, in the white-tailed deer case at Michel-Chartrand Park, dismissing the application for judicial review.”

“This ruling, long-awaited by the population of Longueuil and the district I represent, comes at a time when the condition of Michel-Chartrand Park continues to deteriorate rapidly due to the overpopulation of deer, which worries citizens, in addition to the road safety issues inherent in the area surrounding the park,” said Jonathan Tabarah, municipal councilor for the sector and vice-president of the City of Longueuil executive committee.

“Now that the judgment has been rendered in accordance with our expectations, our teams will resume work to complete the livestock reduction operation and thus restore the ecological balance of Michel-Chartrand Park, as we undertook in the weeks following our inauguration at City Hall, in the fall of 2021,” added Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier.

The city says the revised schedule and action plan will be released shortly.

It all began in 2020 when the City of Longueuil put in place a plan to capture and euthanize 15 overpopulated deer.

Authorities said there were about 32 deer in the park as of 2017, and in 2019, emergency services received 38 calls for accidents involving deer.

Many outraged citizens opposed the project, triggering an online petition opposing the cull.

Officials maintained that action is needed to deal with the overpopulation, preserve the biodiversity of the park, and maintain a healthy deer population.

They say that transferring the deer to another region would not be effective because the animals could find their way back to the park, the stress of moving could kill them and there is a serious risk of transmitting disease to other regions.

In July 2022, the executive committee of the City of Longueuil decided that the white-tailed deer population was “far exceeding” the capacity of Michel-Chartrand Park.

It, therefore, applied to the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife, and Parks for a permit to “carry out a controlled deer hunt”.

The permit had been issued in August 2022 and allowed 100 deer to be shot with a crossbow.

In February 2023, the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks revealed that there were 117 deer in Parc Michel-Chartrand.

Experts suggest that the number of deer should be between 12 and 20 to avoid creating an imbalance.

The plaintiffs have 30 days to appeal the decision.

— With files from The Canadian Press