Montreal woman accused of illegally breeding animals in 'horrible' conditions

A woman in Montreal’s east end is accused of breeding cats and dogs in her apartment under appalling conditions. Animal rights activists and her landlord are denouncing how the animals were treated.

A next-door neighbour was the first to sound the alarm about an unusual number of cats and dogs in the apartment on Lepailleur Street near the Louis-Hyppolyte-La Fontaine tunnel.

“Treating animals the way they were treated, that’s just horrible,” says the neighbour, who did not want to be identified.

The building manager quickly figured out there was likely some illegal pet breeding.

“Once I put two and two together, I was able to realize, OK, this is not a specific pet owner; there’s something else going on here,” Giancarlo Carangelo, an agent at Carangelo Management.

Breeding animals for resale is illegal in Montreal.

A group of cat rescuers discovered the tenant was selling young pit bulls and Bengal cats through some online sleuthing.

“We ended up finding on Facebook that she did, in fact, post multiple litters, multiple litters every few months, so that was a lot of animals she’d be capitalizing on, and probably very expensive as well,” said one of the rescuers, who preferred to stay anonymous.

A Montreal woman is believed to have used social media to sell cats and dogs bred illegally at her apartment. (Source: Susan Mackasey)

“We actually contacted her to say, ‘Do you have any Bengals?’” said Susan Mackasey, founder of PetitsPawz Cat Refuge.

“We knew she was breeding, we had her name, we did a little investigation and found her Facebook page and her Instagram page where she was actively breeding the cats,” said  Mackasey.

The two were able to rescue the abandoned Bengal cat, which had to be treated for a skin infection they believe was caused by neglect.

A cat left behind at the Montreal apartment of a suspected animal breeder is pictured in a cage. (Source: Susan Mackasey)

The apartment’s occupants, two adults and four children, vacated the apartment on July 1.

When the building manager walked in several days later, he found the property in shambles.

“From the minute we opened the door, we smelled the odour of animal excrements, very, very strong and as we walked into the property, it progressively got worse and worse,” said Carangelo.

It took a crew almost a week to clean up and disinfect the property at a cost of over $3,000. Carangelo doubts he’ll be able to recoup the cost of the cleanup.

CTV News Montreal tried to reach the former tenant, who did not respond to our request for an interview.