Animal rights activists go on hunger strike in support of a guide dog convicted of stealing

Members of the Alliance for Animal Defenders went on an indefinite dry hunger strike to protest against the sentencing of animal rights activist Victoria Pavlenko, who was convicted of stealing a dog from a blind girl. This was announced on his Twitter by a member of the organization Yuri Koretskikh.

Three activists who went on a hunger strike demand that Victoria Pavlenko be released and given a fair sentence.

“This happened at the suggestion of citizen Markin (official representative of the Russian Investigative Committee - Ed.), who very actively publicized this story, saying that she was a kidnapper, even at the stage of the investigation. The court had no choice but to follow his words,” Koretskikh said in an interview with Radio Liberty.

Today, the Gagarinsky District Court of Moscow found volunteer Victoria Pavlenko guilty of stealing a guide dog from the blind singer Yulia Dyakova and sentenced her to one year and six months in prison and a fine of 15,000 rubles.

According to the investigation, Pavlenko, out of selfish motives, decided to kidnap the guide Labrador Diana from a store near the Profsoyuznaya metro station. Representative of the UK Vladimir Markin publicly promised a blind girl to find a dog. A week later, the guide was found in one of the shelters.

Victoria Pavlenko does not admit her guilt and claims that she found a dog without an owner on the street and took her to a shelter.