COVER: Pet heaven’s waiting room

Critics say the Berger Blanc pound is cruel and kill-happy, but its director says the allegations are overblown. Contract negotiations with the Plateau may change the way it does business

by ELISABETH FAURE

March 24, 2011

FINAL DESTINATION? Berger Blanc
Photo by RACHEL GRANOFSKY

What is the truth about the Berger Blanc? That’s the question being raised by concerned pet-owners across the island. A movement online and on the ground against the city’s for-profit animal pound is growing.

“The Truth About the Berger Blanc” Facebook page created by the pound’s critics has over 700 people Liking it. The page’s creators accuse the pound of lousy customer service and various nefarious activities. And an online petition opposing the pound’s activities currently has over 2,700 signatures (petitions24.net/petition_berger_blanc).

Critics charge that the pound isn’t helpful to owners who’ve lost their pets, with wild and unsubstantiated rumours accusing the pound of everything from selling animals to labs to gassing them to death en masse.

“There are many, many, many rumours,” acknowledges Pierre Couture, Berger’s owner and executive director. “It would be impossible for us to keep all our contracts if we did those things.”

Open since 1983, the Berger Blanc services over 30 boroughs and municipalities in Greater Montreal from its location at 9825 Henri-Bourassa, two blocks east of Rivière des Prairies Boulevard. It receives an estimated 18,000 stray, lost or abandoned pets a year. Animals—either pets or captured strays—are usually dropped off, but the pound does have a van that can come and collect strays or pets with a 24-hour notice. The pound’s capacity is about 100 cats and 55 dogs. Unlike non-profit shelters like the SPCA, the Berger is a business, with out an animal-welfare mandate.

PLATEAU PROTEST

The Plateau borough is a key battleground for Berger opponents. At a Dec. 6 borough council meeting, resident Anjali Choksi deposited a printed version of the petition and claimed the pound doesn’t wait the mandatory 72 hours required by the borough contract before euthanizing animals. “We have multiple testimonies saying there are many animals who enter and are euthanized one or two hours later,” said Choksi.

Émilie Sauvé also spoke at the Dec. 6 meeting. She said she had to make a four-hour round trip to the Berger every three days to search for her lost cat. Sauvé (whose pet returned home on its own) made serious allegations against the BB, claiming, “I saw cats there dying in their cages.” Both Choksi’s and Sauvé’s allegations can be seen online at webtv.coop.

Borough mayor Luc Ferrandez appeared to take the concerns seriously. Ferrandez formed a citizen’s advisory committee on the spot, mandating them to examine animal control in the bor ough.

The most common complaints against the BB? It doesn’t check for microchips; its primitive website doesn’t display many photos (only a tiny fraction of cats and a total of two dogs); and it insists pet owners travel to the pound to ID their pet, which, given its location in the city’s northeast, is especially hard if you don’t have a car. Critics also complain the pound doesn’t spay or neuter animals before adoption.

Couture defends his pound’s intake procedure. “We always check for microchips before euthanizing an animal,” he says. As for forcing owners to come to the pound in person, Couture acknowl edges the pound isn’t centrally located, but argues, “It’s the responsibility of the person who lost their pet to come down.” He says the website is under construction and will re-launch by the end of April.

VISITING THE CONDEMNED

In order to find out what it’s like to deal with the Berger Blanc firsthand, I called the pound two weeks ago claiming to have lost a black-and-white, microchipped cat in NDG. Staff said they couldn’t check to see if any animal recently brought in matched that description, because, “They all look the same.” Berger staff said they don’t check for microchips. I was told to travel to the Berger every three days to check for the cat.

While Couture says the facility is clean, my visit to the pound was greeted with a strong smell of urine and feces, noticeable from the moment I entered. In the main room, rows of cats for adop tion sit in stacked cages. A room on the left houses more rows of lost cats awaiting owner pick-up. The metal cages contain no bedding, and many cats sleep in their own litter boxes for warmth. One cat’s litter box was completely overturned, and dirty litter was scattered across its cage. Dogs are kept in a narrow, L-shaped room. The cages have central drainage holes. Urine flows down the hole and into an uncovered metal bowl. At the time of the my visit, most of the bowls were full.

Berger’s refusal to check animals based on telephone descriptions has led to a legal ruling against the pound. In 2010, a woman won a small-claims court ruling after the pound euthanized her dog, Zazi, despite her multiple telephone calls describing the animal. Couture admits the pound was in the wrong, but says it was an isolated incident in 25 years of business. “It is only one case, and there will be no more.”

CHIPPED AND CHOPPED

SCAN, STERILIZE, SAVE: Caroline Ross
Photo by RACHEL GRANOFSKY

Other animal welfare groups in Montreal also have reservations about Berger Blanc’s alleged practices. Caroline Ross, the founder of Eleven Eleven Animal Rescue, a non-profit organiza tion specializing in finding homes for difficult-to-adopt animals, says, “My biggest issue with the Berger Blanc is that they are doing nothing when it comes to animal control. They don’t steril ize their animals, and their adoption fees are higher than most private shelters, who offer animals who are microchipped, neutered and fully vaccinated.”

Ross visited the pound and says she was so “heartbroken” at what she found that she adopted three dogs. She claims that the staff were unhelpful when asked about the animals’ tempera ment.

Alanna Devine, the SPCA’s director of animal welfare, says, “We scan every animal brought in for microchips.” At the SPCA, animals must be spayed or neutered as well as microchipped and vaccinated before adoption—an essential step to prevent overpopulation not practised by Berger Blanc. “I don’t believe it’s our job to do that,” responds Couture.

Contradicting what some critics claim, Couture says the only time the pound will euthanize an animal upon arrival is if the pet’s owner asks them to—legally, Berger can’t refuse. Oth erwise, Couture says animals are kept on-premises for three to five days, depending on the contract the Berger has with the area the animal comes from.

Unclaimed animals are evaluated for adoption. Sick animals, dogs aged seven and older and cats aged three and older don’t make the cut. If you surrender your older pet to the pound, it’s automatic euthanasia. “No one wants a seven-year-old dog,” a BB staff member told the Mirror.

Animals are individually euthanized via injection. “We don’t have a gas chamber, we never will,” Couture says.

Another rumour concerns a secret room full of cats that’s off-limits to visitors. Asked about this, Couture bursts into laughter. “Yes, it is true—this section is for pre-adoption cats,” he says. The room is for unclaimed cats being evaluated for adoption. Couture says visitors cannot enter the room for fear of compromising the cats’ health.

As for the charge that the animals are being sold to labs, Couture says, “Find me someone who can prove that I am selling animals to labs, and I will close the Berger Blanc right away.”

FOES IN HIGH PLACES

Meanwhile, Berger Blanc’s contract with the Plateau borough is up for renewal.

Projet Montréal’s Plateau borough councillor Piper Huggins is in charge of the animal-control dossier. Huggins is tight-lipped about her committee’s work, but acknowledges she has received complaints about the Berger Blanc. The committee will release its report this spring.

Staffed as it is with vocal anti-BBers—Anjali Choksi, Émilie Sauvé and committee president Isabelle Poitras—the committee is expected to insist on new practices before they renew the con tract. BB’s contract, originally slated to expire in April, has been given a two-month extension while the committee prepares its report.

Regardless of the criteria the borough sets for bidders, the borough may have no choice but to renew with Berger: last time around, in 2009, BB was the only bidder. At the Dec. 6 meeting, Ferran dez lamented that Berger holds a “quasi-monopoly” on local animal control, and let slip that the borough has asked the SPCA to enter a competing bid, but was turned down. Devine says the SPCA’s animal-welfare mandate doesn’t allow it to consider standardized city contracts—for instance, they won’t euthanize healthy animals surrendered to the pound.

Berger opponents are waiting anxiously to see how the situation turns out. Couture fiercely defends his business, and cautions citizens not to confuse the BB with organizations like the SPCA. “We are not there to save all of the animals,” he says. “We are an animal-control service, not a humane society.” ■