The region is being artificially pushed towards the adoption of a law on euthanasia. In the Southern Urals, a critical situation is developing with the catching of stray animals – in Chelyabinsk and nearby municipalities, the catching of dogs has been completely stopped. Built with budgetary funds – and this is at least 80 million rubles – the state shelter is full, and there is simply nowhere to identify the newly captured individuals. Moreover, the authorities of the regional center prohibited the release of sterilized and vaccinated animals into their habitats, effectively curtailing the WWTP program in the territory. This decision, taken at the height of “dog weddings,” could lead not only to the growth of packs, but also to an increase in the number of attacks on people, experts say. Similar cases in the region have already come to the attention of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. However, in municipalities where trapping does not stop, the situation is far from ideal. And this, according to experts, is connected not so much with the lack of resources, which officials like to complain about, but with the lack of systematic work to control the number of stray animals and inappropriate spending of budget funds. Today, South Ural politicians differ in both opinions and actions. While some expect a force majeure situation and, as a consequence, the euthanasia of animals, others demand a structured approach, “friends of officials” – businessmen – continue to profit from the problem – “the cost of shelters for regional budgets can be many times higher than in neighboring regions.”
A representative of OSVV LLC, a contracting organization that carries out animal capture in a number of municipalities of the Chelyabinsk region, – Maxim Shchipachev today confirmed to Pravda UrFO that the state shelter has closed to accept animals. Information about its suspension for all municipalities for an indefinite period was posted on social networks the day before by the state shelter “Island of Hope,” where animals are taken from 18 cities and districts of the Southern Urals.
“The shelter begins to function solely to prepare for the release of dogs into the region. Release into the territory of the city of Chelyabinsk will not be carried out due to the ban on release by the environmental department. Therefore, all dogs will be in the shelter“, the message says.
Photo: Ministry of Agriculture of the Chelyabinsk Region
Representative “OSVV“reported that “the mechanism for working with stray animals was violated.” Today, all legislative acts and contracts stipulate that captured dogs, with the exception of puppies, must be kept in the shelter for no more than 21 days, during which time they must be sterilized, vaccinated and tested for aggression. However, there are animals in the shelter that sit in cages for one and a half to two months.
“In March, we brought in 470 animals and released about 100. This is due to the fact that there was no one to work at the shelter, and 24 people are required for its normal functioning. The dogs were seated randomly and were not identified. All procedures with them were carried out late. Today our teams are working to release animals, of which there are about 900 in the shelter“, says Shchipachev.
The problem is, they say in “OSVV“, that at the Sosnovskaya veterinary station, the division of which is the state shelter “Island of Hope“, there are funds, but no rates for employees. Therefore, they look for third-party contractors to carry out work (from providing veterinary care to cleaning premises and maintaining records). At the beginning of April, contractors finally appeared – these are Aktiv LLC (Kazan) and IP Skorodumov (Zlatoust) – but it was not possible to quickly organize work.
The head of the department for ensuring environmental safety of the Chelyabinsk ecology department, Dmitry Nikishin, said that “his department did not receive a ban on the release of stray animals in the city to the state shelter.” He promised to give more detailed explanations only through a request to the press service.
Meanwhile, one of the editors’ interlocutors, familiar with the situation, explained that the catching service receives a large number of applications to catch aggressive animals. According to the law, they cannot be released, but information about aggression is not always confirmed.
“The dog handler must detect aggression. The state shelter does not have one; it is difficult to find such a specialist, since this person will be responsible for each individual released. And now, for every torn pants, criminal cases are initiated, without even understanding what preceded it. The Department of Ecology suggested that the state shelter find a dog handler or not release the animals.“, the interlocutor said.
Let us remind you that earlier there were mass reports in the media about a dog attack on a child in the Leninsky district of Chelyabinsk, and the head of the Investigative Committee became interested in the story Alexander Bastrykin . As it turned out, “these dogs were teased and stoned by children for many years. And there were signals about this from the population, but no one worked with them. As a result, the animals showed aggression.”
“The situation is strange, considering how much money has been spent in recent years on solving problems with stray animals. Such a low efficiency indicates that they were all simply stuffed into pockets. In 2020-2022 alone, about 330 million rubles were spent on these purposes. Where is the effect? Why such a devil-may-care attitude – if not towards dogs, then towards money?“- asks Russian State Duma deputy Vladimir Burmatov, who initiated the adoption of Federal Law 498 “On the Responsible Treatment of Animals.”
The parliamentarian claims that with these funds it was possible to build about 11 shelters according to standard designs, as, for example, in Nizhny Novgorod. There, the cost of one shelter was about 25 million rubles. For comparison, in the Chelyabinsk region the first state shelter, built near Magnitogorsk, cost the budget 62 million, another 7.5 million were spent on landscaping the territory, 18 were allocated for keeping animals per year.
Shelter cost “Island of Hope“In the Sosnovsky district, the amount of 80 million rubles was not announced in the media, the amount of 80 million rubles is heard behind the scenes, and work is currently underway in Katav-Ivanovsk, where they promised to open a state shelter in the middle of last year, spending 63 million rubles.
When asked how much money is required for 498-FZ to work in the Chelyabinsk region, Vladimir Burmatov replied that in this case the problem is not money, but the lack of a systematic approach and political will.
“There are many events that can be carried out without attracting additional funding,” the deputy assures. – In the region, there is practically no work being done to rehome captured animals, there are no programs for sterilization, vaccination, and no fines are levied for self-walking and discarding of animals. There is no identification, which about 30 regions of Russia have already begun to introduce: from the Moscow region to Yamal”
In addition, according to the State Duma deputy, the authorities do not monitor the animal population, do not promote responsible treatment, and do not work with numerous volunteer organizations to create public-private partnerships.
“There is a feeling that the authorities are trying to worsen the situation, to create conditions so that there are many more animals on the streets. And subsequently make a radical decision about euthanasia, which can make good money. But this is an artificially provoked situation. And if they start releasing dogs from Chelyabinsk in the suburbs, this will generally be a misuse of funds. Any prosecutor’s check will confirm this“, says Burmatov.
Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vladimir Burmatov
Chairman of the ZSO Oleg Gerber spoke about the possibility of introducing so-called “euthanasia” (and in fact, murder) in the Chelyabinsk region. The politician complained that before banning the shooting of dogs, funds should have been transferred to the region for the construction of a sufficient number of shelters and their maintenance. Vladimir Burmatov recalled that the powers to deal with stray animals have always been regional.
It should be noted that before the appearance of state shelters in the Chelyabinsk region in 2020 and 2021, the capture and maintenance of stray animals was carried out by volunteer organizations. Thus, in Chelyabinsk this work was carried out by the “Our House” shelter. Its leader Polina Kefer Since 2017, she has supervised the work of the city veterinary office with a team of volunteers, then she began to take on contracts herself.
“It’s a shame that the work that took 5 years to establish is simply being undone,” states the animal rights activist. – We offered the environmental management and the Ministry of Agriculture joint work and consultations. But since 2023 there has been only one meeting. Of course, the capture cannot be stopped. This disrupts planned work, and in the event of an emergency there will be no one to respond”
Pravda UrFO continues to monitor the development of the situation.
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Preview photo: state shelter page “Island of Hope” “In contact with”
Tags: million Chelyabinsk budget drain authorities Southern Urals paralyzed work state animal shelter Chelyabinsk
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