Community cats get a voice with awareness-raising walks in Quebec
Citizens will walk simultaneously in Montreal and elsewhere across Quebec next Saturday, April 4, to bring visibility to the reality of community cats. Dozens of partners for the event include shelters, citizen groups and committed organizations.
Other aims of the initiative, organized locally by volunteers, are to call for concrete measures to reduce feline overpopulation and encourage a co-ordinated provincial response. A petition for the National Assembly has already garnered more than 4,700 signatures and can be signed until April 11.
Many cats live outdoors, without identified owners or stable protection. Although often referred to as stray or feral cats, they are also known to those who care for and about them as community cats. They often depend on people who feed them and provide shelter for them.
Many are either born on the street, abandoned or the result of unplanned litters. They are exposed to hunger, disease and the dangers of the street. Often, this means suffering for the animals and pressure on shelters and communities. “Without co-ordinated measures to prevent abandonment and control reproduction, this cycle repeats itself year after year,” event organizers said in a statement.
The walks will begin at noon in Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Mont-Laurier and Îles-de-la-Madeleine.
The Montreal walk will take place along Ste-Catherine St., from east to west. The starting point for the full three-kilometre route is Charles-S.-Campell Park, 1250-1296 de Champlain St., near the Papineau métro station. There will be stops at Place Émilie-Gamelin (Berri and Ste-Catherine Sts.) and at Place des Festivals, across from the Place-des-Arts métro. The end point is Dorchester Square on Peel St., just below Ste-Catherine.
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