Gatineau helps 18 MRC de Papineau towns fight stray cats
In gatineau, stray cats are forcing municipalities in the MRC de Papineau to improvise. Eighteen municipalities are still not served by the SPCA of Outaouais, and some towns say the service is either unavailable or too costly to use.
Carolyne Lavergne, a Chénéville citizen and entrepreneur who previously ran an animal shelter, says residents keep dropping off abandoned dogs and cats at her door. "Parfois, j’arrive chez moi et j’ai des animaux devant ma porte. Je suis une toiletteuse, pas une fille qui récolte des animaux", she said in an interview. "En ce moment, c’est moi qui paye pour les sauver. On dirait que j’ai plus de cœur pour les animaux que les humains".
Chénéville and Montebello
Maxime Proulx-Cadieux said Chénéville has "un grand problème" with cats mating and that the municipality does not have control. He said the SPCA does not come because the town is too far away, and Chénéville is about one hour from Gatineau.
Montebello is handling the issue differently. Citizen volunteers transport stray cats to Gatineau for sterilization, and the municipality pays its share of the procedure. Martin Deschênes called that arrangement temporary, saying, "Ce n’est pas une solution, mais un pansement en attendant quelque chose de mieux".
Costs in Papineauville
Paul-André David said the issue is spreading across the MRC de Papineau. He said Papineauville has dealt with the problem, but the service costs between 12,000 and 14,000 dollars a year.
Deschênes said the cost is one reason some towns cannot rely on the SPCA of Outaouais. "Je ne veux pas pointer du doigt la SPCA, ils font ce qu’ils peuvent, mais ça coûte une fortune", he said. The SPCA website lists Bowman, Papineauville, Thurso, Saint-Sixte, Val-des-Bois, Ripon, Cantons de Lochaber and Lochaber-Partie-Ouest as served municipalities, but some of those towns are not covered for stray cats.
The result is a patchwork response: some municipalities pay for sterilization, some send volunteers to Gatineau, and others say they still have no regular service. For residents dealing with abandoned animals, the practical fix is still local and expensive, not regional and settled.
