By Robert Frank
Laval Police intercepted a car driving 107 km/h on the Highway 440 service road, Sept. 17, where the speed limit is 70 km/h.
“When the officer stopped the vehicle, he saw the woman in the passenger seat trying to resuscitate a chihuahua,” Const. Franco di Genova told The Suburban. “He took note of the driver’s permit and then escorted the couple to the Laval veterinary hospital.”
The officer then gave a couple a $258 speeding ticket.
The chihuahua did not survive.
Police dogs exempted
However, K911 co-owner Rodney McLean told The Suburban that Transport Quebec won’t let him exceed the speed limit, either.
“We have been trying to get them to allow us to go a little faster with the emergency lights on when we need to get to a veterinary hospital in a life-threatening emergency,” he said in an interview. “We’ve even been pulled over for using a bus lane. There’s one exception: If we’re transporting a police officer’s dog, we have carte blanche to travel as fast as we can to save its life.”
“We met Transport Minister Robert Poëti and he basically said that animals are like goods: they don’t have any more value than what you pay for them,” McLean said. “Animals also serve as seeing eye dogs and help people with autism, for example. They play an important role in our lives and their value needs to be recognized by our society.”
He added that K911, which has transported thousands of animals since it was founded, seven years ago, has contracts with all Laval and Montreal veterinary hospitals and is currently in talks with the city of Laval.
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