Montreal used to see pet abandonments spike around Canada Day. Now they’re year-round

Canada Day has traditionally been synonymous in Montreal with moving day: piles of junk on street corners, sweaty bodies carrying couches up and down the city’s winding staircases – and a spike in abandoned animals at shelters.

However, Montreal’s SPCA is no longer seeing a big jump in animal surrenders around July 1, but that’s not because people have stopped giving up their pets before moving homes.