In November, Buryatia became the first region to adopt laws reintroducing the “kill and shelter” approach to controlling stray dog populations, after President Vladimir Putin signed a law giving regional heads the authority to deal with the issue independently.
New regulations allowed authorities in Buryatia to set up unspecified “temporary shelters” where stray animals suffering from diseases, dogs deemed “socially dangerous” and those unclaimed for more than 30 days are put down.
The animals are supposed to undergo “humane euthanasia,” through two injections: an anesthetic that makes the animal sleep, and then a chemical that stops its heart or lungs. However, rights activists say government clinics and subcontractors, trying to save money, often use only muscle relaxants, suffocating the conscious animal.
Buryatia's new laws contrast with Russia's previous animal protection policies and, in particular, promises made by Putin — himself a dog lover — during his 2020 campaign to rewrite the country's constitution. The revisions paved the way for Putin to remain in power until 2036, and also introduced various other changes, including a clause on the need to form a “sense of responsibility when treating animals” in Russian society.
The measure targeted animal rights activists who have for years criticized the lack of legal accountability for people who mistreated or abandoned their pets, or failed to spay or neuter them. In the past, volunteers have also reported more brutal animal control methods in some areas after finding stray dogs with slit throats or crushed skulls.
During an election campaign event before the constitutional referendum, Putin said that the new constitutional requirements “allow us to feel like civilized people.” Other laws effectively banned kill shelters and mass euthanasia.
But that all changed last spring when two people were found dead in the southern Astrakhan region with bite marks on their bodies, and after an 8-year-old boy was mauled by a pack of dogs in the city of Orenburg. Yuri Koretskikh, director of the Animal Defenders Alliance, said the attacks angered local residents, and Astrakhan Governor Igor Babushkin responded by launching a pressure campaign to repeal animal protection laws.
“There were scandal after scandal, and the number of dogs increased because of the money allocated to address this [was] “It was stolen,” Koretzkikh said. He added that the governor “simply decided to do away with any responsibility, thus blaming everything on the fact that the authorities cannot kill the dogs, and therefore they roam the streets and pose a danger.”
The bill was introduced to the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, by Sardana Avksentieva, the former mayor of the far-eastern Russian city of Yakutsk, which has been blamed for the deaths of more than 200 cats and dogs who were found with their throats cut. Local shelter.
Avksenteva denied any involvement, and officials said the measure was necessary to control the rabies outbreak. Local activists accused the mayor of killing animals to save money to maintain the shelter.
The speed with which the law passed through the Duma was likely the result of pressure from several governors who squandered or embezzled state funds intended for the Neutral Return Trap program, sabotaging the initiative for years even as other regions showed successful reductions in the unemployment rate, Koretskikh said. Their numbers are stray dogs.
In Buryatia, a measure has been in effect for the past two years prohibiting shelters from releasing castrated animals longer than 10 inches — essentially condemning any dog larger than a Spitz or Chihuahua. This restriction has overwhelmed already overcrowded shelters in the area.
a lot The larger animals were held at a private shelter called Ananda that received a government grant to house hundreds of dogs subject to height restrictions. But in August, funding ran out and a group of volunteers had to find resources to feed the nearly 3,000 dogs held there.
Three months later, Buryatia allowed euthanasia, with officials saying that in the past three years the region had seen six high-profile cases of dogs attacking humans, with four deaths and two cases in which children suffered “irreparable moral and physical damage.”
“It is more humane to euthanize a dog than to keep it in a barn all its life,” Governor Alexei Tsydenov said, while other officials said the released animals would gather in groups and continue attacking people.
Since late December, volunteers from Sobaka Schastya 0r, a local organization called “Happiness Dog,” have been waking up almost every day at 3 a.m. to retrieve dogs from the shelter and put them on a train to destinations that sometimes take three to four days. Travel far.
“Almost every evacuation looks like this because many of the dogs are afraid, many of them are weak, and this is their first time in such an environment. They are afraid of trains,” said Daria Zaitseva, director of the foundation. “So we have to carry most of the dogs.” “In our hands.”
The organization evacuated approximately 150 people Dogs from Buryatia, with some pets finding homes as far away as Switzerland. The foundation's volunteers have also created a network of Telegram channels to place the remaining dogs elsewhere in the country.
Videos of volunteers placing petrified dogs on trains have gone viral in Russia, sending adoption rates soaring over the New Year holiday – but the organization fears interest will not last, and that there is not enough money and hands to care for the dogs still in the country. Shelter, not to mention successfully evacuating everyone.
Many of these dogs in the Buryatia shelter have registered owners who have effectively abandoned them by letting them roam. If a captured animal has a tag or microchip, it will be protected for 60 days before being put down. Shelters are allowed to keep dogs at their own expense, but activists say this is unrealistic because private facilities are already overwhelmed without government support.
“In Buryatia we have a problem of homeless animals because people largely live in their homes, there is no culture of handling animals responsibly and no one is working with the population to change that,” Ananda Shelter Director Nargiza Muminova said. , He said.
Mominova said she was recording The remaining dogs are the private property of the shelter staff to save them from euthanasia. .
Three other regions followed Buryatia and implemented laws allowing animals to be killed after no more than 11 days.
A member of the State Duma's environmental committee, Vladimir Burmatov, criticized authorities in Buryatia, saying the new law did not mean they could conduct stray animal safaris and should instead focus on shredding and neutering.
“If we take Buryatia, even if the volunteers can move all these poor dogs out of the area, it will not help the situation because they will start killing new dogs,” Koretskikh said. “As other areas join, we may have tens of thousands of animals a year and no resources to save them all, and volunteers will have to accept the fact that we are back to the mass killings of six years ago.”
Natalia Abakumova in Riga, Latvia contributed to this report.
