In the Leningrad region, a case was opened about cruelty to animals in the zoo where a Pallas cat died

The prosecutor’s office of the Leningrad region initiated the initiation of a criminal case on cruelty to animals in a private zoo at the recreation center “Shishki na Lampushka” near Lake Razdolye (popular name – Lake Lampushka), the department’s press service reported. The zoo attracted the attention of the environmental prosecutor’s office after the Pallas’s cat (listed in the International Red Book), brought from the Novosibirsk zoo in June, died there in August.

On December 26, investigative authorities opened a criminal case based on the materials of the inspection of the environmental prosecutor’s office. The actions of zoo employees are qualified as cruelty to animals for the purpose of causing them pain and/or suffering (clause “d”, part 2 of article 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The Leningrad Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor’s Office checked the private menagerie at the request of a resident of the Priozersky District. The audit showed that the zoo management systematically violated laws on the treatment of animals: it did not comply with the rules of animal quarantine and other veterinary and sanitary requirements, and hid information about sudden deaths and simultaneous mass diseases of animals. The animals were shown to visitors in gross violations of licensing requirements, the prosecutor’s office concluded.

In connection with the violations found, the general director of the zoo received a report from the prosecutor, and cases of administrative offenses were initiated under Part 1 of Art. 10.6 (violation of animal quarantine rules or other veterinary and sanitary rules), Part 1 of Art. 10.7 (concealment of information about sudden deaths or simultaneous mass diseases of animals) of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The owner of the zoo was brought to administrative liability in the form of fines in the amount of 43 thousand rubles. In addition, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region received a case against the owner of a zoo about carrying out business activities in gross violation of the conditions stipulated by the license (Part 4 of Article 14.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

The zoo “Na Lampushke”, like the tourist center “Shishki na Lampushke”, belongs to the entrepreneur Vyacheslav Ananskikh. In the official VKontakte group of the zoo writtenthat this is the largest private zoo in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region and now more than 400 animals live there.

Dmitry Krasheninnikov, St. Petersburg