AN ENGLISH MESSAGE WILL FOLLOW

En avril, j'ai adopté deux chats secourus ensemble. J'ai acheté deux produits de Canadian Tire appelés "PAWS UP! Cage pour animaux, parois souples" pour amener les chats de la maison d'accueil à chez nous.

La cage a deux fermetures. Il y a une porte avec une fermeture à glissière à l’avant. Les deux glissières de cette fermeture se rencontrent au milieu. La deuxième fermeture est sur le dessus avec fermeture à glissière double. Les fermetures à glissière ne se rencontrent pas. Il y a un rabat avec un bouton qui se referme sur les glissières.

Quand mon mari et moi sommes allés à la maison d'accueil, l'homme a ramené les cages dans sa maison. Il est revenu avec les chats et il a dit que les chats peuvent ouvrir la fermeture à glissière sur la porte à l’avant. Il a attaché les deux glissières avec une attache pour sac.

Quand nous étions dans l'auto, un des chats s'est échappé de sa cage. Il a ouvert la fermeture à glissière sur le dessus. Il est allé sous le siège du passager avant. Il s'y est blessé et il est mort de ses blessures. Le vétérinaire qui est arrivé chez nous pensait le chat s’était peut-être brisé la colonne vertébrale, ou peut-être qu’il y avait trop de pression sur sa poitrine.

J’ai laissé une critique sur le site Internet de Canadian Tire, mais ma critique a été rejetée; il est interdit de mentionner la sécurité d’un produit dans les critiques. Ils veulent que les gens téléphonent au service clientèle, ce que j’avais déjà fait. Il y a aussi des autres critiques qui font mention que des chats se sont échappés de ces transporteurs.

J’ai envoyé les autres critiques à la représentante avec qui j’ai parlé. J’ai envoyé des photographies des fermetures à glissière aussi. Elle m’a demandé d’amener le transporteur à un magasin Canadian Tire pour une inspection.

Deux semaines après que nous leur avons ramené le transporteur, j’ai envoyé un autre courriel pour un suivi. Elle a dit que mon dossier avait été transféré dans un autre département et a demandé si le magasin m'avait accordé un remboursement. J'ai dit qu'ils l'avaient fait, mais mon objectif était qu’on retire le produit du marché. Elle m’a dit que l'autre département était en charge d’enlever les produits du marché et a envoyé deux liens “pour plus d'informations”. Le premier lien était une liste d'autres produits qui avaient été rappelés de Canadian Tire. Le deuxième était un lien vers le site Web de Santé Canada sur les rappels. J'avais déjà consulté ce site Web avant de contacter Canadian Tire. Santé Canada a la responsabilité d’enlever du marché les produits qui peuvent mettre en danger la sécurité humaine; ils n’ont rien à voir avec la sécurité des animaux. Je pense qu’en m’envoyant un lien vers ce site Web, Canadian Tire me dit qu’elle ne fera rien au sujet de ce produit parce qu’elle n’est pas obligée de le faire.

L'intérêt d'un transporteur pour animaux de compagnie est de vous permettre de transporter votre animal en toute sécurité. Ce transporteur ne fait pas cela parce que les chats peuvent ouvrir les fermetures à glissière et sortir. Je ne suis même pas autorisée à laisser un avis disant que ce n’est pas sécuritaire. S'il vous plaît, Canadian Tire, faites retirer ce transporteur afin que cela n'arrive pas à un autre chat.

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Last month, I adopted two cats who had been found outside together. In order to pick them up from their foster home, I needed cat carriers. I purchased two Paws Up! pet taxis from Canadian Tire because the curb side pick up they offer was convenient. I thought that the soft sided carriers would be more comfortable for the cats.

This particular carrier has two openings. There is a door at the front with two zippers that meet together. There is also an opening at the top with two zippers that run parallel to each other and do not meet (like on a duffel bag.) There is a flap with a button that closes over the top zippers when they’re closed.

When we went to get the cats, the foster dad brought the carriers into the house while we waited outside. When he came back out with the cats, he told us that they were able to open the zippers on the front door of the carriers. They had escaped after he put them in and he had had to get them into the carriers again. He used twist ties to tie the zippers on the front door together.

My husband and I put the cat carriers on the back seat of the car so that we could put the seat belts through the handles. We sat in the front. It was about a ten minute drive to our house. While we were on the way home, we heard a zipper opening. I looked back and saw one of the cats getting out of his carrier. He had opened the zippers at the top (the ones that were closed with the flap and the button). He crawled under the front passenger seat.

When we got home, the cat would not come out from under the seat. We tried to coax him with treats. We thought he might be stuck. We were trying to figure out how to take the seat out of the car without moving it back because we did not want to hurt the cat. The cat went limp and then my husband was able to pull him out. We thought that he had gone into shock so we found a vet who would come to our house to look at him. When the vet arrived, he told us it was too late. The cat had already died. The vet said that he either broke his spine trying to move under the seat, or he had too much pressure on his chest and suffocated.

 I wanted other people to know that cats are able to open the zippers on these pet carriers so I left a review on the Canadian Tire website. My review was rejected because it did not meet their publication guidelines: “Review mentions customer service issues, shipping issues, return policies or safety concerns. If you have concerns about the safety of a product, please contact us directly with the information provided below. Do not submit this feedback through a product review.” I had already been in contact with customer service at this point to tell them that I think this product should be recalled. I think it’s also worth noting that there are other reviews for this product that say that cats have opened the zippers and escaped. Even a couple of positive reviews mention cats escaping from this carrier.

I took screenshots of these other reviews and sent them to the representative from Canadian Tire who I was in contact with. I also sent several pictures of the zippers on the carrier, showing her that no matter how you anchor the zippers on the top, it is still possible to open them. She asked me to bring the carrier to a local Canadian Tire so it could be inspected.

It had been two weeks since we brought the carrier back and I had not heard from them. I emailed the person to ask if there was any follow up. She said that my file had been transferred to another department and asked if the store had given me a refund. I said that they had, but my goal was to see the product recalled. She said that the other department was in charge of recalls and sent two links “for more information.” The first link was a list of other products that had been recalled from Canadian Tire. The second one was a link to Health Canada’s website about recalls. I had already looked at this website before contacting Canadian Tire. Health Canada only issues recalls for products that jeopardize human safety; they don’t have anything to do with animal safety. I think that by sending me a link to this website, Canadian Tire is telling me that they’re not going to do anything about this product because they don’t have to.

 The whole point of a pet carrier is to allow you to transport your pet safely. This carrier is not doing that because cats can open the zippers and get out. I’m not even allowed to leave a review saying that it’s not safe. Please, Canadian Tire, do the right thing and take this pet carrier so that this doesn’t happen to another cat.