25 cats, two dead
11 dogs, two dead
40 pigeons
26 hens
Two turtles, one dead
Two geese
One horse

That’s what Sûreté du Québec police officers and volunteers from the Eastern Townships SPCA discovered upon entering the Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge home of a 64-year-old woman. That, and a house wrecked with mold, animal excrement and vomit on the floors and walls. Police officers had to force the woman out of her home and immediately took her to the hospital.

This is not the first case of animal hoarding in Quebec.

Noteworthy animal hoarding cases

In 2007, neighbours had their building’s superintendent in St-Henri unlock the door to an apartment after an increasingly terrible smell permeated the air. Inside were not only 17 sick cats but 43 more stuffed into the refrigerator, some with needles still embedded in their skin.

Pierre Barnoti, then the executive director of the Canadian SPCA, told the Montreal Mirror it was a case of animal hoarding, a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder:

“In the U.S., it’s considered an illness, a pathological disorder. Sadly, in Quebec, they’re considered animal lovers, but they need serious help.”

In 2009, the Montreal SPCA put out a call for people interested in adopting a rabbit or rat after 93 rats and three rabbits were seized from a Montreal apartment. Those weren’t the only animals found. According to Alana Devine, Montreal SPCA’s director of animal welfare, also found were “hundreds of rodents, rats, birds, reptiles, a few dogs, cats, hedgehogs.”

In what was called the largest case of animal cruelty in the province’s history, 500 malnourished and sick dogs were seized from an alleged puppy mill in southwestern Quebec.

While not a case of animal hoarding, the seizure brought much attention to the province’s lenient animal rights regulations. From a CBC Montreal report:

“The province has long been considered the puppy mill capital of North America, with an estimated 800 unregulated breeding operations in Montreal alone. Quebec was named "the best province to be an animal abuser" in the 2011 annual report prepared by the U.S.-based Animal Legal Defence Fund.”

The discovery of the dogs led the Quebec government to introduce new animal welfare legislation, increasing the number of animal welfare inspectors and setting out clear regulations for standards of care in pounds and animal shelters. Bill P-42 was recently debated and will be introduced in the National Assembly in the coming months.

Below is the section of Bill P-42 pertaining to the safety and welfare of animals.

Photo: Kyuni786 via Flickr (http://opnfil.es/xExFb4)