The Verdun borough is warning residents that someone is poisoning animals in the neighbourhood.
Local animal ambulance service Animex tells Global News they have dealt with five animals being poisoned in the past ten days.
One of them was Marie-Helene Julien’s cat Jaco. The 10-month old cat was discovered in an alley in a bad state on Sept 11. Animex rushed him to a veterinary hospital where he later died.
“I rushed down to the vet clinic and here was my cat, already dead from the poisoning,” said Julien.
She said her two children had urged her to adopt the stray.
“We adopted that cat, he was so friendly, so nice. We had him for only four months but you get pretty attached to those little animals. I think people who would go around and do that is very sick and it has to stop. This person has a mental health problem,” she said.
Huguette Boisvert, who lives on 3rd Avenue told Global News she recently spent $1,000 at the vet to save her dog.
“They told us it must have been poison,” she said.
Another Verdun resident reported seeing a can of pet food laced with poison on the street. The cans matched the description of other poison-laced food that was found in the area in April.
READ MORE: Poisoned cat food in Verdun sparks investigation by Montreal SPCA, Animex
“You cannot poison animals just because they annoy you,” said borough councillor Sterling Downey.
He says some people have been upset about animals causing a nuisance in the neighbourhood.
“People are fed up with squirrels digging up gardens, cats digging up gardens, cats urinating or marking peoples’ lawns,” Downey told Global News.
He says the city has doubled its efforts to catch and sterilize stray cats and recommends registering your animals with the city.
“You cannot start playing judge, jury, and executioner of animals who are just trying to co-habitate and live,” said Downey.