Quebec Mayor ‘Deliberately Runs Over Cats,’ Quebec Parrot Fired For Speaking English

A Quebec mayor said he deliberately runs over cats to control the feral population in his town. A Quebec language inspector announced that a parrot persisted in greeting guests in English at a Montreal attraction, a violation of Quebec language laws that will result in the unrepentent scarlet macaw being transported to Toronto.

That’s the kind of animals news from Canada that was appearing in my feed this weekend. People, chill. I’m going to clear it all up for you.

About that Quebec mayor who said that he deliberately runs over cats? Okay, yah, according to CTV Montreal and other Canadian sources, Huntingdon, Quebec Mayor Stephane Gendron did make the remarks on a French-language radio broadcast.

I don’t speak French, but here’s CTV’s translation of the statement: “First of all, cats have no business being in the road, if it’s a stray cat in the road, bang, I accelerate.”

There was an immediate hue and cry, with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) officials coming forward to say that they would investigate him for the crime of deliberately runnning over cats — which reportedly carries up to a five year sentence in Canada.

Can we give the guy the benefit of the doubt? He was frustrated about the feral overpopulation problem in his town. He doesn’t run over cats.

Here’s an excerpt of the apology he posted in the aftermath:

“I myself have to deal with this situation on my property, with dozens of stray cats that come into trouble. I agree that the images used had no use to advance the debate on this issue remained unsolved to this day. For all these reasons, I apologize. It is a black humorous inappropriate for such a discussion.”

It was a joke. A bad, sick, not-too-funny joke. But a joke.

Next?

On Friday, The Beaverton’s David Radin broke the story of the Quebec parrot who would be deported to Ontario for speaking English.

According to Radin’s account, a compliance officer conducted two surprise visits at the Montreal Biodome and twice caught star attraction Bouton, a scarlet macaw, greeting and meeting guests in English rather than French:

“Bouton also violated OQLF [Office Québecoise de la Langue Francaise] rules about French being the official language of the workplace. The presence of unilingual animals excludes many québecois birds from pursuing jobs in this sector.”

Therefore, Bouton was axed from the Montreal Biodome position and shipped off to Toronto.

The report aroused the usual spluttering that surrounds any report by French or Québecois language protection officers.

Folks, The Beaverton is a satire site. Parrots are not subject to Canada’s language laws.

But I’ll admit that this story actually had me going for a minute.

What about you? Did you believe that the Quebec mayor deliberately runs over cats and a Quebec zoo fired a parrot for speaking English?

[cat photo by Bertil Videt via Wikimedia, macaw photo by Elaine Radford]