Deputies are looking for remedies for brutality – Kommersant

The State Duma Committee on Legislation recommended introducing fines for pet owners who abandon their pets or treat them cruelly. An administrative sanction will also threaten citizens if the ward has bitten someone. The initiators of the amendments will calculate that this will solve “acute social problems that have matured in society” and will force citizens to take a more responsible approach to the decision to have a pet.

On Monday, the State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation recommended for adoption in the second reading a bill amending the Code of Administrative Offenses in terms of establishing responsibility for violating legislation in the field of treatment of animals. The initiators of the amendments were Vladimir Burmatov, deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on ecology, and Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the committee on legislation (both United Russia). The bill passed its first reading on December 21, 2021.

The amendments introduce fines for citizens in the amount of 10,000 to 30,000 rubles for a number of violations, from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles for officials, and from 100,000 to 200,000 rubles for legal entities . Thus, administrative liability is assumed for cruelty to animals, when the act “does not pull” for consideration under the articles of the Criminal Code. Also, the sanction will be applied if the owners abandoned the pet or if it harmed other animals or people (for example, for dog bites). Administrative responsibility is also provided for non-compliance with the conditions for keeping animals in shelters.

The authors of the amendments believe that all these measures will help solve “acute social problems that have matured in society.” For example, fines for abandoned animals will help fight the increase in the number of homeless individuals, and fines for biting will solve the problem of self-walking, as animals will be monitored more closely. Moreover, according to legislators, the introduction of administrative sanctions for cruelty to animals will also make it possible to bear responsibility for “juvenile knackers, who today are not subject to articles of the Criminal Code due to their age.” At the same time, it will be possible to punish pet owners for bullying pets that did not lead to death and obvious injuries (“when they starve or beat,” the initiators explain). Recall that now liability for cruelty to animals is provided only by Art. 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Recall that a week ago, amendments to Federal Law No. 498 “On the responsible treatment of animals” were vigorously discussed in the State Duma. Then the deputies in the first reading adopted amendments giving the regional authorities the right to choose appropriate ways to control the number of stray animals. To date, homeless individuals can only be handled according to the OSVV scheme (“Catch, sterilization, vaccination, return to Wednesday”), and any methods of killing are prohibited. The bill was sharply criticized by animal rights activists and raised many questions, including among the deputies.

Mr. Burmatov, mentioning this, told Kommersant that although these are “two completely different bills, but the things (considered in them.— “b”) are absolutely interconnected. The deputy explained that each of the norms supported today by the committee serves to solve the tasks outlined in the federal law, that is, it supplements it: was”.

At the same time, animal rights activists believe that the introduction of fines was remembered only in order to “whitewash the amendments allowing the killing of homeless animals.” Thus, the representative of the Animal Welfare Association, Yulia Trefilova, is sure that the problem can be solved by taking comprehensive measures and their public discussion. “The root cause of all problems is man. To regulate the sphere, we need measures that will be taken in relation to humans, but these measures should first of all concern the registration of pets and the introduction of a tax on them.” The animal rights activist believes that budget revenues from such a tax can ensure the successful implementation of the OSVV program and then there will be no need to “make flagrant amendments to the law on the responsible treatment of animals.”

Vladimir Burmatov is convinced that the subjects of the federation will be able to independently decide on the mandatory registration of animals, as well as set a specific size of populations. He also sees a preventive function in the introduction of fines: “People will read that there are fines for getting rid of pets, and it will become clear to them that there is responsibility for this. So they will already make decisions about the adoption of the animal more carefully.

The State Duma at a plenary session on Tuesday may consider in the second reading a bill that introduces fines for discarded animals, for biting and for cruelty to animals, a source in parliament told TASS.

Polina Yachmennikova