Russia (bbabo.net), - The authorities of the Far Eastern regions are ready to initiate amendments to the federal law on the responsible treatment of animals. In fact, there are no territories in the district where the document adopted at the end of 2018 would be implemented as it was intended by its authors. But the changes now being discussed (for example, allowing humane euthanasia) are unlikely to be approved at the federal level.
Incidents with the attack of stray dogs on people, alas, are not uncommon in the Far East. But at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year, tragic incidents followed suit. Often the victims are children.
The idea embodied in 498-FZ was to put an end to stray packs. And in a very humane way. The main principle is that animals must not be killed, they must be subjected to the OSVV procedure - trapping, sterilization, vaccination, release. Shelters are intended for carrying out the second and third points, some dogs (especially aggressive ones) remain in them forever. All actions were required to be recorded without fail with the help of video recording - thus control was established.
The execution of the law stumbled in a classic way. On funding.
- The federal budget does not give money to the regions for the creation of shelters, - emphasizes the deputy of the Sakhalin Regional Duma Alexander Bolotnikov. - We need nine such structures on the islands. 42 million rubles for this we "thrown" into the budget of the region. But to build an object for 350 individuals, for example, in the Uglegorsk district, 128 million are needed!
A separate article is the sterilization of dogs (on Sakhalin it is three thousand rubles for each) and their maintenance. In 2022, 979.7 thousand rubles were allocated from the regional budget to the Uglegorsk district for the implementation of OSVV points. This is enough for about 65 animals. And there are more than 500 neglected ones. And the rest will have time to breed faster than they are sterilized.
The maintenance of one individual costs a tidy sum. The director of the Nizhny Novgorod animal protection organization at a recent press conference with the participation of Russian actors announced the figures: four thousand rubles a month. What is suitable for the Volga city is unlikely to be sufficient for the Far East: at the same conference, the Yakut people were scolded with their requests for nine thousand rubles. But, for example, in Transbaikalia this figure is even higher - 11 thousand.
- We have frosts, shelters should be warm, dogs need normal food, meat. We live in such a place, we have such a climate, you understand? - the head of the Kyrinsky district of Transbaikalia, Lyubov Sakiyaeva, gets excited in a conversation with a correspondent.
Her alignment of the situation is not out of the general trend.
- In 2021, our district was given 325 thousand rubles from the regional budget for catching dogs. Not a single contractor wanted to enter this meager amount, - says Lyubov Sakiyaeva. - Somehow we persuaded the company from Irkutsk. They caught 22 dogs. One was placed in Chita, the rest were brought back and released where they were taken, sterilized, vaccinated, but with the same teeth and the same need for food. Dogs rush around the village, there were cases - they snatched food from the hands of children. In 2022, they will give us even less for dogs - 321 thousand rubles.
Contractors are badly "caught" on the allocated amounts. Especially in those regions where the budgets are very modest. An illustrative example is Jewish autonomy. As told in the government of the region, in Birobidzhan region, the authorities managed to conclude agreements with the society for the protection of animals. And the other four districts - Leninsky, Obluchensky, Oktyabrsky and Smidovichsky - did not like those who wanted to work in the field of 498-FZ. Subventions from the regional budget were even sent to the municipalities (250 thousand rubles were allocated for each). The money was left unclaimed.
Against this background, no one is surprised by the frequent publications in the media and social networks about how poorly dogs are kept in some shelters, how contracted companies sometimes “master” state money in a fraudulent way. Unfortunately, neither big nor small money can give guarantees. Tight control is needed - this is another component of solving the problem.
In the Kyrinsky district of Transbaikalia, only 22 dogs were caught in 2021. They were sterilized, vaccinated and brought back. With the same teeth and the same need for food
It is easy to blame the local authorities for the current situation. In principle, this is the State Duma has now taken, threatening officials with tougher responsibility. But it is possible to understand the Far Eastern deputies, heads of regions and districts. Almost everyone with whom the correspondent managed to talk on this issue compared the cost of a dog shelter with the price of a secondary kindergarten project. Someone remembered the old windows in the schools of the area. Someone spoke about the money, which is not enough to support the vulnerable segments of the population.Throughout the two years the law has been in force, the regions of the Far Eastern Federal District have been trying to achieve its change. The initiative sent to the State Duma and the government of the Russian Federation in April 2020 by Chukotka parliamentarians is very indicative. “Sterilized, microchipped dogs without an owner can exist in Moscow and other large cities, but not in the extreme climatic conditions of the Far North,” the explanatory note said. “The use of […] exclusively sterilization and maintenance (perhaps for life) in animal shelters extremely costly and unfeasible without attracting significant financial resources, which the regions do not have.
The deputies proposed to allow the subjects themselves to establish the order of measures to control the number of animals without owners. In other words, to allow the elimination of dogs if necessary.
Neither this initiative nor a number of others were successful. Apparently, they will not pass even now. If the law cannot be changed, new approaches to its implementation will have to be found. And locals already understand this. First of all, you need to look for ways to save money. According to the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Mikhail Yakimov, costs must be reduced, and for this it is possible to build larger complexes, not for 150-180 animals, but for all 400 or a thousand.
- We need standard objects for events under 498-FZ, - Mikhail Yakimov notes. - Now eight shelters of various forms of management have been created in Transbaikalia, but they can rather be called overexposure points. We were offered to build a shelter for 180 people for 62 million rubles. A sky-high amount! But literally these days, negotiations are underway with a contractor on the construction of four shelters for 18 million rubles, which we can allocate from the regional budget.
In the JAR, on the contrary, they intend to build small points. To do this, non-profit organizations will be attracted - they will be allocated 1.8 million rubles from the regional budget for grants. The funds can be used to purchase building materials, trailers, change houses, and various equipment. The maximum grant amount is 300 thousand rubles. They will start shipping in May.
There is one more nuance. As the authorities of the regions note, it is very difficult to plan events and expenses for them today due to the lack of accurate information on the number of stray animals. However, there is no method of counting, and there is no authorized body carrying out such counting either.
- We propose to create a single state body - the Federal Agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, - said Deputy Governor - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Food of the Chukotka Autonomous District Sergey Davidyuk. - It would determine the exact number of stray animals on the territory of Russia, develop standard projects for animal shelters, taking into account their number on the territory of each subject and the climatic conditions of the latter. The agency must have a staff to carry out activities for the treatment of animals without owners and be fully funded from the federal budget.
Direct speech
Alexander Osipov, Governor of the Trans-Baikal Territory:- We must understand that stray animals without owners, being on the street for a long time, turn, in essence, into predators. And therefore, the current requirement to return them to their former places where they were before capture, for such regions as ours, is a legal requirement that does not ensure the safety of people, and it must be corrected.
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