The SPCA is trying to pressure CORPIQ to get landlords to accept animals

For years, the SPCA, a pro-animal lobby, has wanted to change the law so that landlords would be obliged to accept them in the lease.

For the past few days, the SPCA has been campaigning to obtain as many signatures as possible on a petition that it intends to submit to CORPIQ in order, it hopes, to get landlords to be more flexible and accept animals.

CORPIQ obviously has no intention of changing its policy, which is to defend the fundamental right of landlords to choose what they prohibit or allow in the lease. CORPIQ is neither in favour nor against animals. The decision is up to each landlord, based on his or her own experience, advantages and disadvantages.

Obviously, landlords take into consideration all sorts of risk factors, such as damage to the unit, the safety of other tenants, noise, odours, cleanliness of the premises, and allergies. They also take into consideration the fact that allowing a pet can also make it easier to rent a unit during periods of high vacancy.

This being said, the SPCA's tactics must be denounced. Indeed, it is misinforming the public by stating that only 4% of owners accept dogs. It attributed the source of this statistic to the Régie du logement which, verified by CORPIQ, never produced this information. In reality, 23% of landlords would accept in a new lease that the tenant has a dog, according to a vast survey conducted among its members in 2015. In most cases, this would be under certain conditions. For cats, it's 71%.

The SPCA, which says it wants to defend the well-being of animals, chooses to put the blame on landlords who refuse them, for tenants abandoning their pet when they move. It should instead educate tenants to discourage them from getting a pet, knowing that they may not find housing and that, in any case, an apartment in town is not an appropriate place to keep a dog (this is also what a majority of tenants, surveyed in 2015 by the Léger survey firm, think).

In any event, twice in 2015, following petitions from the SPCA to the National Assembly, the government has declared being in favour of maintaining the right of landlords to choose. There is no reason to believe that the current government could ever change this position.

As for animals that can compensate for a handicap or allowed for zootherapy treatment attested by a medical certificate, they cannot be refused. However, in the case of proven and caused problems, a lease cancellation can still be obtained from the Régie du logement.