Homeless dogs are proposed to stop being released from shelters into their natural habitat. They should be supervised until a new owner takes them in. Or live in an orphanage for the rest of your life. Such a bill will soon be submitted to the State Duma by the LDPR faction. According to the authors of the initiative, even sterilized homeless animals pose a threat, especially for young children. Experts, however, warn that there will not be enough shelters for all stray dogs.
Still dangerous
According to Izvestia, the LDPR faction will soon submit to the State Duma a bill “On Amendments to the Law “On Responsible Treatment of Animals and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation”. They are invited to ban the release of stray dogs from shelters into the street, as they can pose a danger to human life and health.
“Once on the street, dogs unite in packs, which causes a threat to the population. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of homeless animals without owners. It is necessary to take effective approaches to working with stray dogs and, first of all, to protect people from contact with them, ”the explanatory note to the bill, which is available to Izvestia, says.
The authors of the initiative propose to leave homeless animals in shelters until they have a new owner or a natural death occurs.
“Although stray dogs are chipped and sterilized, there are cases when, after returning to their natural habitat, they huddle in packs and attack people. It is especially sad when such animals attack children,” Yaroslav Nilov, deputy chairman of the LDPR faction, explained the need for the bill to be introduced.
In this regard, parliamentarians propose to increase state funding for shelters.
“This money should be used both for the construction of new institutions and for the maintenance of animals in them until they are transferred to the hands of new owners or the moment of their natural death,” the parliamentarian explained.
According to the financial and economic justification for the bill (Izvestia has it), the budgets of the regions will have to allocate money for these purposes. As the faction explained, since January 1, 2020, the municipal authorities in Russia are obliged to catch such homeless animals at their own expense, place them in shelters, chip, sterilize, vaccinate against rabies, and then release them again. For example, in the Ryazan region, over 20 million rubles were allocated for these purposes last year. Whether there will be a need to increase funding through life maintenance, the Liberal Democratic Party did not specify.
In addition, with another bill, the faction proposes to legally enshrine the concept of “animal defender” in the legislation.
“Currently, government measures to protect animals are not enough. The number of state shelters is limited to only 16. According to the information company Mats Petcare, the number of stray cats and dogs is 4.1 million. Of these, 735 thousand are stray dogs,” the LDPR clarifies, where they believe that the new status will help caring citizens and volunteers to protect animal rights more effectively.
“We work closely with the animal protection community, meet regularly, provide all kinds of support and believe that they are doing a humane and right thing. That is why we proposed to introduce the term “zoodefender” into the current legislation and give it a definition so that this term has a legal meaning,” Yaroslav Nilov explained.
For a better life
As Izvestiya reported earlier, last year there were 567 shelters for stray animals in Russia. However, in order to accommodate all homeless animals, it is necessary to build 469 more such establishments. Anatoly Razinkin, First Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, turned to Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko with a request to allocate funds for these purposes. According to experts, about 15–20 billion rubles were required for these purposes.
After that, Victoria Abramchenko instructed the heads of regions to take additional measures to organize shelters and control their work, and the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance and other departments to work out issues to prevent dog attacks on people. Izvestia sent a request to the Cabinet of Ministers for the execution of the order of the Deputy Prime Minister and the possibility of implementing the LDPR initiative.
Last year, the State Duma adopted a law that allows the construction of shelters through the mechanism of public-private partnership (PPP). Nevertheless, as experts note, so far little progress has been made in this direction, and entrepreneurs are investing in this area without much enthusiasm.
— Business does not see the benefits of such investments. Apparently, there are obvious risks and losses, but no payback, and after all, any entrepreneur wants to make money. Therefore, the law has been adopted, but the mechanism of its action, in my opinion, has not been thought out, – Nikolai Zakharov, president of the Russian Guild of Cynologists, explained to Izvestia.
According to him, of course, the problem of stray dogs remains relevant, as cases of attacks on people by stray animals continue.
– Whether keeping such pets in shelters will solve it will depend on the quality of these institutions. Of course, if everything is properly arranged there, and the animals live like at home, then this is better for them than wandering the streets,” the expert explained.
According to media reports, incidents of dog attacks on people occur in Russia almost every day. In some regions, the authorities even introduce a state of emergency in connection with this. This, for example, was announced last week in the Chuguevsky municipal district of Primorsky Krai, where three children have already suffered. Previously, the state of emergency due to stray dogs was introduced in Magadan and on the territory of the Yakutsk Highway District.
Vladimir Koshelev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Public Utilities, in a conversation with Izvestia, said that dog packs terrorize almost all Russian cities.
“In recent years, cases of attacks on people have become more frequent. For example, at the end of January 2022, a pack of stray dogs killed a 7-year-old girl in the Trans-Baikal Territory, and in February, a pack of homeless animals attacked an 11-year-old girl in the Chelyabinsk Region, the parliamentarian noted.
According to him, in Samara alone, which he represents in the State Duma, in 2021 and 2022, more than 1.8 thousand citizens applied for medical help in connection with the bites of stray animals.
– In my opinion, the problem of stray dogs in Russia can be solved if it is approached comprehensively. If municipal shelters can make sure that animals are kept there in good conditions and do not need anything, then, of course, in principle, it is not worth releasing them back into the wild, Natalya Krikunova, director of the Pick a Friend Animal Assistance Fund, commented to Izvestia .
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p class=”MsoNoSpacing”>According to her, there is nothing good in returning animals from the shelter to the street. They flock again and pose a threat of attack on people. The expert believes that business in Russia can invest in the maintenance and construction of shelters, and there are successful examples of this, but these are projects of patrons who do not earn money on this.
