'A death certificate': Montreal animal rights advocates speak out against upcoming foreign dog ban

Montreal animal rescuers are raising alarms over Canada's decision to ban dogs from more than a hundred countries "until further notice."

The government insists the ban is necessary to keep rabies out of the country, but animal rights advocates say a blanket ban isn't the right way to do that.

One of the people who hopes the government to changes its plan is Montreal dog owner Lyndsey Kirwan.

Her dog was found by rescuers tied to a tree in Lebanon. He spent years in a shelter, until the Montreal-based organization Rescue All Dogs matched him with Kirwan.

She named him “Fattoush,” after a traditional Lebanese salad, often made with leftover pieces of pita.

“One of the meanings of Fattoush is it's made with pita bread, pita that's been given a second life,” she said.

“Fattoush has also been given a second life, and is living that out in Montreal.”

She says that if she wasn’t matched with him, it was unlikely that he would have been adopted, since he was already an adult when he was found.

Come sept. 28, animals like Fattoush won't have a chance to be adopted at all, when Canada bans dogs from more than a hundred countries, including Lebanon, saying that the risk of bringing rabies into the country is too high.

"Canada does not currently have any active cases of dog rabies, a strain that is different than the rabies typically found in wildlife,” wrote the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in an announcement outlining the new policy in late June.

“However in 2021, dogs were imported into Canada with this disease," read the release. "The importation of even one rabid dog could result in transmission to humans, pets and wildlife."

“I was sad, very sad, that's basically giving a death certificate to the thousands of great and amazing dogs,” said Rescue All Dogs co-founder Kim Desautels.

She says the ban punishes responsible shelters, and would rather see stricter regulations to make sure dogs have all their shots and documents aren't falsified.

“Don't cut off the good work that the rescues and shelters are already doing,” said Kirwan.