SRZP went over to the side of the animals

State Duma deputy and candidate for mayor of Moscow from the party “Fair Russia – For the Truth” (SRZP) Dmitry Gusev held a meeting on Tuesday on regulating the circulation and residence of pets. The formal reason for the meeting of party members and social activists was the adoption by the Duma in the first reading of a bill that, among other things, allows the regions to euthanize stray dogs. The participants of the event called the document “a flayer” and tried to formulate other, more humane ways to solve the problem. According to the expert, the active work of the party on this popular topic can add SRHR rating points in the capital.

The topic of humane treatment of domestic and abandoned animals has long been mastered by Right Russians. Their faction in the State Duma turned out to be the only principled opponent of the bill, which gives the regions the right to independently determine the procedure for dealing with stray dogs (see Kommersant of May 17). The party members fear that the new norms “will untie the hands of the regional authorities and legitimize the massacres of defenseless animals” – a tab with such a quote from the leader of the SRWP, Sergei Mironov, is posted prominently on the official party website.

On July 4, deputy head of the faction Dmitry Gusev gathered SRZP deputies of various levels, public figures from specialized NGOs and even several officials for a round table. “We were categorically against this law! Mr. Gusev opened the event. “Unfortunately, our attempt to remove the bill from consideration was not successful (out of 350 deputies who voted against, 31 voted against it.— “b”), but we have prepared our amendments. They were developed based on your suggestions, plus there were ideas from our faction. The essence of these amendments is this: even if the regional authorities are given the right to introduce their own rules for the treatment of pets, these rules will be humane.” Nevertheless, the deputy admitted that these amendments might not be taken into account by the Duma.

The problems associated with stray animals, continued Dmitry Gusev, arose because the industry is not regulated by federal agencies. He proposes to solve this issue first of all, and at the same time introduce the position of an ombudsman for the rights of pets (and their owners) and create a unified system for registering pets. According to Moscow Regional Duma deputy Anatoly Nikitin, such a system has worked well in the Moscow region. “From September 1, we have (introduced.— “b”) compulsory registration of all dogs,” Mr. Nikitin later boasted to journalists. dogs in the same apartment. However, later Messrs. Nikitin and Gusev assured Kommersant that they opposed the introduction of such a tax in the Russian Federation.

The representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources who were present at the meeting appreciated the zeal of the party members and made it clear that their department could take up regulation of the industry. “There is no agency, no federal service with powers,” Vladimir Stroganov, deputy head of one of the departments of the ministry, admitted. “The Ministry of Agriculture maintains a unified register of animals, but they don’t even want to hear about cats and dogs! They have a position: “unproductive” animals – this is not our path, you do it. We are ready to engage.” At the same time, the issue will require funding, and therefore its coordination must be carried out at a high level, the official added. His colleague Maria Derevianko agreed with this and added one more wish – that the registration and registration of pets be conducted on a voluntary basis: “The sphere is sensitive for citizens, and measures can lead to the abandonment of animals.”

However, representatives of NGOs advocated a “totalitarian approach.” According to Ksenia Amdur, a lawyer for the Take Happiness Home Foundation, voluntary rules on the registration of pets have existed since the 1990s, but do not work. From the further speeches of the activists, it followed that the situation could be reversed if the registration (and accompanying chipping) of pets became mandatory, formal supervision would be carried out by the federal agency, but at the same time, public figures would be allowed to additionally control the industry. The meeting participants unanimously decided to send the appropriate initiatives to Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko – Dmitry Gusev himself promised to write a letter.

According to political scientist Konstantin Kalachev, the Socialist-Revolutionaries are now in search: “They are shaken from turbopatriotism to caring for our smaller brothers. Dmitry Gusev, a former political strategist, helps the party look for these meanings. And he does not forget himself as a candidate for mayor.” The expert notes that in Moscow the problem of abandoned animals is not as acute as in some other Russian cities, where, amid high-profile incidents of attacks on people, angry citizens may advocate the killing of stray dogs. Therefore, work on the humanization of the relevant legislation can bring certain results to the capital’s SRHR, Mr. Kalachev admits: “Of course, it makes sense to appeal to dog owners. Here, the expectation is that Muscovites will fall for the topic: the residents of the capital are compassionate people, and a pack of stray dogs is not observed here.

Grigory Leiba