City and dogs

Chronicle of life and death of stray dogs in Moscow

As I pressed the bell, I heard a deafening bark from behind the high fence. From that side, a red-haired dog ran up to the iron gate, and stuck its head into the narrow gap between the gate and the ground, but someone dragged it back: the dog squealed. Thundered...

As I pressed the bell, I heard a deafening bark from behind the high fence. From that side, a red-haired dog ran up to the iron gate, and stuck its head into the narrow gap between the gate and the ground, but someone dragged it back: the dog squealed. The castle rattled, and an employee of the dog shelter “On Dubovoy” came out from behind the gate (10 minutes walk from the Ostankino TV tower).

The whole shelter is a small field, where on one side a place for walking dogs is fenced off, and on the other, three long rows of cages stretch two floors. To be honest, until that moment I did not believe the rumors about the horrors of the local keeping of animals. But I had to believe. Irina Artemenkova, chairman of the Gentle Beast Foundation, says that one Swedish journalist came out of such a shelter “crimson” and kept repeating: “I didn’t think such a thing could happen at all.”

Happens. In cages about three square meters in size live 5-6 dogs. Sick animals along with healthy ones. I saw mutts running around a thin dog, with black hair on its head and a white, bald body, while it, resting its head on the bars of the cage, looked motionlessly in one direction. Dogs from the second floor shit right on those who live below them. Such conditions of detention are completely contrary to the Moscow Regulations “on catching <...> ownerless dogs” of 2008. I will only say that, according to him, a cage of 9 square meters should be allocated for three dogs.

However, it became no easier for dogs to live on the streets of Moscow than in such shelters. Recently, blogs and entire sites have regularly appeared on the Internet that promote the extermination of mongrels. These resources have an audience: since the beginning of the year, several cases of mass killings of animals have already been recorded.

Since the end of 2009, about 40 dogs have been poisoned on the territory of Losiny Ostrov and adjacent areas. Among them were Belysh and Kardan, local favorites who lived near the Severyanin railway station.

Domestic dogs also died, for example, the guide dog of Viktor Mikhailovich, a local resident. He is visually impaired and therefore simply could not see how his shepherd picked up something from the ground.

Since the end of last year, more than two dozen animals have died in Khoroshevo-Mnevniki. In mid-January, 23 dogs were killed in Izmailovo in one night. The penetrating wounds found on the bodies of animals were initially attributed to firearms, but later it turned out that the mongrels died from brutal torture: these were stab wounds.

Cases of poisoning 5-6 dogs occur even more often. Literally 10 minutes walk from my house, 4 dogs were poisoned this month. One of them had several puppies, who immediately died, and the other was domestic. Together with her owner Oksana, I went to apply for this fact to the district police department. They accepted him with a smile. True, they said that the poisoner still could not be found.