“Do not be shy when catching”: the State Duma gave the decision to euthanize stray dogs at the mercy of the regions

The State Duma, after a long discussion, adopted in the first reading a bill that gives the regions the right to hold “special events” on their territory for the treatment of homeless animals. The representatives of the authors did not give a direct answer to the questions of the deputies “does this give the regions the right to adopt laws on the extermination of stray dogs”.

The bill was introduced by a group of deputies from different factions, among them the head of the Duma Committee on Ecology, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Dmitry Kobylkin (ER). Some general federal rules (trapping, sterilization, vaccination, return to their former habitats – OSVV) can not be observed – for example, do not hesitate to use “substances, medicines, methods, technical devices that lead to injury, injury or death of animals” when catching “.

Evgeny Markov (LDPR), on behalf of the authors, recalled several tragic cases of human deaths from stray animals and said that after the initiative becomes law, each region will be able to adopt its own law, “which guarantees the humane treatment of animals, but not only by the methods of EHVV , but also by other methods”, without explaining, however, what kind of “other methods” these are.

The first deputy head of the Committee on Ecology, Vladimir Burmatov (ER), in turn, recalled that before the first reading, the State Duma received more than 20,000 applications from citizens and organizations. “Sometimes it seems that the media write about another bill – it does not contain either shooting or killing animals, it is about something else – about protecting citizens and animals,” the deputy said.

The government supported the initiative.

The deputies had a lot of questions. Almost half of them were about one thing: whether the bill would allow the killing of stray animals. Mr. Burmatov gave the same answer to everyone: “at the suggestion of the highest official of the subject, the regional assembly of deputies adopts a law that regulates the practice in the subject”, they say, such a mechanism was proposed.

“There are people who give birth, breed dogs, then throw them out into the street or send them for self-walking, are there any penalties for irresponsible owners?” Olga Alimova (KPRF) asked. Mr. Burmatov called this issue “essential”: most of the dogs on the streets were either domestic, or are descendants of domestic ones, “they were not lucky with people, they themselves are not to blame.” The bill on fines for abandoned animals (up to 30,000 rubles is the upper limit), according to him, “we plan to consider it at the relevant committee (on state construction and legislation. -“ MK. ”) next week, and if the committee supports it, we will submit it to the plenary session “. (This bill was adopted in the first reading more than a year ago, prepared for the second reading, but after the authorities abandoned the all-Russian registration of pets, it “hung”.)

Another popular topic raised during the discussion is corruption and theft. Mr. Burmatov acknowledged that the corruption risks in this case are the same as always: “they may or may not steal, there are regions where funding is reduced, but everything is going well and the population of stray animals is decreasing.” “A good shelter costs about 20 million rubles in the middle lane. But this is if you don’t steal, which not every leader is capable of, ”with these words, United Russia even broke a thin applause.

Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR) noted that although “the bill on the transfer of powers, and not on the killing of dogs, some regions may switch to inhumane methods,” and raised the issue of monitoring the situation in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Mr. Burmatov admitted that “there really are such fears”, and indeed over the past five years, grossly violating the law and spitting on the Criminal Code, “in a number of subjects animals were killed, and not out of bloodthirstiness, but for reasons of a mercenary nature – because the money was just stolen. Allocated for one, and the money in your pocket.

They were not ready to vote for only the “SR” and “New People” factions. Spravoross Anatoly Greshnevikov said that if the initiative was adopted in its current form, “White Bim – Black Ear from the Soviet film would have been destroyed and would not have returned to the owner.” In turn, Oleg Leonov (“New People”) said that the bill “split society”, no matter what anyone says, in its current form, the OSVV does not work, but the mass destruction of dogs is unacceptable, especially since before 2018 “there was a massive shooting, but it did not save “…

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29030 dated May 17, 2023

Newspaper headline:
White Beam will not return