They are building a municipal mega shelter here, passing a bunch of laws, introducing a chatbot for reporting about stray packs, and even handing out dogs through the city hall's Instagram.
Photo: Valeria Fedorenko/»New»
A huge red head sticks out of the booth and lazily watches the uninvited guests. This dog will never have an owner or a real nickname, but in my mind I call him Polyphemus — for his size and incompleteness. Good people gouged out the eye of the woolly giant out of fear or for fun. Polyphemus — «contract», that is, caught as part of a municipal order — and now lives, perhaps, the best 20 days of his life: on allowance at the Four Paws shelter. Soon they will release him, along with the “one-stayers”, where they got him from. There is an opinion that dogs after sterilization will become calmer, and over time, having ceased to multiply, they will die out a natural death.
Because of people like Polyphemus, a high alert regime was recently introduced in Primorye. At the same time, there is a heated debate in Vladivostok about the construction of a municipal mega-shelter. Telegram's new stray animal chatbot is literally torn apart as authorities introduce mandatory labeling for pets. At the same time, the situation with aggressive flocks in the region has remained stably difficult for many years, and right now it has not worsened or improved, and there are no scandals with fatal outcomes, as in Transbaikalia or Yakutia, in Primorsky Krai. But things have moved from the dead point only in these days.
Problem
Now, 80 dogs and a couple of cats and foxes live in the Four Paws shelter near Vladivostok, and 137 more are not very far away, in the Nadezhdinsky district. There are «contract» and «permanent», that is, those who live here on a permanent basis, until their death. Moreover, regardless of the temperament: dogs are euthanized here only for serious medical reasons, aggression does not apply to those.
Dogs are picked up on the streets by animal rights activists or brought to a shelter by people. It happens that even ten puppies are thrown in a box, adult dogs are tied.
In the enclosures where the dogs live, there are four booths, hay is laid in each, next to it are bowls with water and dry food. In one «hotel room», by the way, there are five — one bitch was very worried until she was moved to her comrades, now she sits quietly on top of wooden houses. There is also a “hospital” where cats, puppies and animals are kept immediately after the operation. Two people take care of the animals — Ksenia and Anna. Girls also catch dogs — sometimes it takes a whole day. They put meat in the cage, lure the dog, sitting in ambush, in order to slam the door at the right time. The distrustful have to shoot with darts with anesthesia.
Ten days the dogs caught under the state order are in quarantine. On the 11th veterinarian sterilizes, vaccinates and microchips them. The animal stays in the shelter for another ten days, and then it is released from where it came from.
Despite the fact that stray dogs in Primorye have not killed or seriously injured anyone, the problem is acute even in the regional center. For decades, no one has systematically engaged in trapping.
They didn't, for very obvious reasons. For many years, the officials of the city, where the depreciation of utility networks reaches 90%, turned out to be somehow not up to the dogs. On the other hand, municipal contracts for animal protection organizations are not such manna from heaven. Until recently, the prescribed amounts did not cover the real costs. Therefore, since 2015, there were no people willing to go to auctions. Last year, the Friend Rich Foundation took on the burden of capturing 81 dogs. And now they let themselves be persuaded and entered the Four Paws auction.
Photo: Valeria Fedorenko/»New»
— People did not go to contracts because the cost is almost twice as high as the prescribed standard. We ourselves could not increase it, and the Primorsky Territory Legislative Assembly initiated an increase in the standard — now the amount is close to reality, — says Ilya Litvinenko, deputy head of the Department of Roads and Improvement of the Vladivostok Administration. — Under the current contract, it is planned to capture 80 dogs. In total, the plans for this year are 300-500 dogs, we will conclude contracts with two more contractors.
“It must be”
As part of the high alert regime in all municipalities, mobile groups for catching stray animals and overexposure points should be created. Local authorities should monitor spaying, vaccination, and record keeping of tagged animals, as well as counting stray dogs in the areas.
The order must be observed by administrative commissions and precinct. It can be seen that only stray dogs are not enough for them to be completely happy.
Utilities, together with the housing inspectorate, should strengthen “control over the sanitary maintenance of container sites, thereby eliminating the collection of animals near them,” the regional government says.
According to the new regional law, on June 1, all domestic dogs must be provided with a marking (a chip or an indelible mark). The regional state veterinary inspection should start maintaining a single database for marked dogs with data on the dog — with its help it will be easier, for example, to search for “lost dogs”.
The veterinary inspectorate answered the questions of Novaya Gazeta that the dogs will be marked by subordinate institutions of the organization. At the same time, no one will expand the staff for this case.
The draft regional law, adopted on an emergency basis at an extraordinary meeting of the Legislative Assembly, introduces the concept of «unmotivated aggression» in dogs (surprisingly, it did not exist before) — that is, aggression, roughly speaking, out of the blue, resulting in harm or threat to life, health or person's property. Local administrations, at their discretion, have the right to include funds in contracts with shelters for ordinary citizens who themselves catch and bring stray dogs without signs of marking. 2000 rubles for a living homeless dog. So far, it is also not clear how it all works.
From normal and understandable — an increase in the number of animals subject to capture under contracts (not two, but three heads per 1000 inhabitants of the municipality), and funding. Catching a tramp now costs not 884, but 2500 rubles. Transportation — not 1066, but 1700 rubles. Maintenance in a shelter for 20 days is not 3306, but 6300 rubles. Still not enough…
PR
The topic of stray animals is being developed from all sides: a high alert regime has been introduced, money has been added, new municipal contracts are being planned. The City Hall of Vladivostok advertises cats and dogs from charitable foundations on its official Instagram account. The mayor of Vladivostok, Konstantin Shestakov, sets a living example: he himself adopted a dog from a shelter a long time ago.
All information resources belonging to the government of Primorye are trumpeting: the initiative belongs to the governor Oleg Kozhemyako and the United Russia party (at the same time, no one somehow remembers that the head of the relevant committee of the Legislative Assembly, Andrei Andreichenko, is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party). Before a series of municipal elections, including Vladivostok, in the protest region, this looks like an attempt by the ruling party to score political points.
Chatbot
There are reasonable doubts about the effectiveness of most of the adopted laws, but there is also a well-functioning mechanism. As is often the case, it is simple.
Photo: Valery Fedorenko/»New»
In Primorye, on February 3, a Telegram chatbot was launched to catch stray dogs. You can also report them by calling the Unified Duty Dispatch Service.
Polina Stepanenko, head of the Regional Management Center in Primorye, told Novaya Gazeta that in the first two days 312 messages were received via Telegram, in the first week — 483 messages from residents (despite the fact that without a chat bot in monthly SDG receives an average of 250 calls for stray dogs).
Here are just some of the messages from citizens in the chatbot:
«Borisenko, 104. Near the Industrial College of Energy and Communications. They attacked my 11 year old son. Anna».
“Snake (Churkin). Unfortunately, I can’t tell you the exact address, because the dogs are not deployed in any one place, but my child is very afraid to go to school, often walks around the circuit, because a pack of huge dogs is running towards him. Katerina.
“In the Pervorechensky district, near Volkhovskaya, 5, Ilyichev, 24, Ilyichev, 26 streets. Dogs rush along these streets, run into the territory of a tuberculosis dispensary, next to residential buildings, kindergartens and a school. Dogs show aggression. A pack of 3-4 medium dogs. One red, one black and grey. Please take action. Olesya.”
“Russian Island, at the end of Universitetsky Prospekt there is a bus stop and a garbage dump, where a flock of dogs constantly hang out, hunting roe deer in droves. Also dogs on Zelenaya street, houses 2 and 3.
“Vladivostok, st. Stanyukovicha, 39, 37, 49, the territory of school No. 42 and around it. A pack of 3–5 dogs (they run separately or in pairs during the day). Now they are especially aggressive, they even fight among themselves (yesterday they fought at about 21.00). The dark dog is the most aggressive, attacks and bites children and adults regularly, chewed the leg of a girl from primary school, the child spent a month in the hospital. We hope everyone in the area can help! Elena».
The information is processed every hour and transferred to the organizations responsible for catching dogs under contracts. In Vladivostok — to the Four Paws Center for the Protection and Assistance to Animals.