Without animal prisons

The State Duma is ready in the near future to consider the bill of humane attitude to animals, which involves the prohibition of contact zoos and the maintenance of wild animals in the apartments. This was reported to reporters by the head of the State Duma Committee on Ecology Olga Timofeeva.

According to her, the law can be considered already in the coming months, although not all disagreements have been lifted in the disputed moments yet. However, they will not rush with its adoption, because the law should be “not fast, namely, to the workers,” Timofeeva emphasized.

“We need to find normal ways so that communication is harmless to animals. Today we insist on the ban on mobile dolphinaries and contact zoos. It is also necessary to introduce sealing stations and the maintenance of wild animals in apartments, ” the Interfax news agency quoted her words.

Contact Zoo "Living Corner" in the Sokolniki park Andrey Lyubimov / AGN "Moscow"

The deputy added that parliamentarians still find mechanisms for the mandatory vaccination of pets and their chipping. At the same time, the deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Ecology and Environmental Protection, the deputy from United Russia Vladimir Panov told the RIA Novosti information agency, which very soon a document may be made to the State Duma that will determine the parameters of paid registration of domestic animals.

To talk with Polit.ru about the need to adopt certain laws on responsible treatment of animals and the features of some proposals of legislators in this area was agreed by Svyatoslav Zabelin, co-chairman of the Council of the International Public Organization “International Socio-Ecological Union”.

“Our society is quite stressful - the sparkles of aggression now and then skip, justified or unreasonable - it does not matter. And animals, especially homemade ones, are becoming more and more than our life every day. And the wild, contained in captivity, is also an element of our daily life. And the manifestations of cruelty to them, unfortunately, also fall on a common not very good background.

It would be one thing if society had rejected the cruel circulation - then, perhaps, the laws on animal handling would not be necessary. But today a prison in Russia is not rejected by society. And any zoos-well, except for very well done-this is still a prison. Therefore, my colleagues and I would like to add mobile zoos to the contact zoo, which, perhaps, even more.

Mobile zoo. Birsk, Bashkiria, 2016 Photo by Alina Pushchina

By and large, the principle is the same everywhere: there is a certain prisoner, two -legged or four -legged - it is not so important. He sits in a cage that does not correspond to his essence, that is, his freedom is very serious. And the attitude towards animals falls on the fact that in our country - a little less than a million prisoners, and how many people have passed through prison, we no longer consider.

From an ethical point of view, I repeat, these circumstances are superimposed on each other. Therefore, any initiative to reduce the number of cases of cruelty and restriction of animal freedom is important. The restriction of animal freedom coincides with the adoption by society restriction of people's freedom. These ideas will reinforce each other. Meanwhile, the same mobile zoos, in my opinion, do not add love for animals to anyone. As, however, love for people.

Both in mobile and in contact zoos, animals do not live very long. Of course, if the child for the first time stroked some raccoon or even a snake, which the children are deadly afraid, but which can also be stroked, then this may not be bad. The child receives a certain emotional feeling that it is non -hazardous to contact animals, that they are good, and so on, and from a common point of view, this is good. But someday this child grows up to the understanding that he himself can also be in such a cage. It’s not so difficult to understand.

Therefore, you need to at least try to do something for animals. Well, everything is clear about the closure of seal stations - but this is a business of hunters. And here you can solve only one thing: either hunt or not. This, of course, is also cruelty - but it is quite removed from us, unlike mobile and other zoos. Of course, I would also forbid them, but this type of activity becomes the subject of public interest only when it falls on social networks or in the media. Unlike various zoos and dolphinaries.

With dolphins, the situation is generally terrible. It has long been proven that they are practically reasonable, and in some countries they were simply legally equated with reasonable creatures-for example, in India. And in general, dolphinaries as a whole are horror. But since people can be kept in a cage, then what and dolphins are not maintained?

In a word, I believe that zoos in general have the right to exist only if they are well arranged. When I was engaged in amphibians, I formulated this principle for myself: the space for the animal should approximately correspond to the one that it masters in the wild. Relatively speaking, keep the sturgeon in the capital's aquarium or giraffe on an area of ​​a hundred square meters incorrectly. This may not apply to all types and not with all species, but in general it is.

A container that contained animals of a mobile dolphinarium photo of Alena Kryukova / RIA "Voronezh"

Well, for some animals they make safari parks, where enclosures are huge and living conditions are more or less acceptable. If this territory is several hectares and there are some mixed herds on it, then the illusion of normal conditions can be created there. In a word, this is still better than a giraffe or elephant in a cage ten by ten or even twenty by twenty, and even the whole winter living in a closed room, ”said Svyatoslav Zabelin.

Commenting on the idea of ​​parliamentarians to introduce mandatory paid registration for pets, he expressed the opinion that there is no much sense in such a variety.

“I do not see the point of registration. If you pay for registration, then this is probably a clear minus. And where then are the pluses? What are we paying for? For the fact that some kind of aunt sits and introduces the name of your pet into the computer? And check the registration - how? And most importantly: from the introduction of paid registration, there will be no fewer animals left in the village after the puppy was held in the summer and played with it. He will never be registered. So, I think this proposal is already some kind of absurdity, an attempt to add a little bureaucracy.

Well, they will create another link, and for what? Yes, the bureaucracy is growing for a reason - people have nothing to do. This, one might say, is an attempt to solve the dilemma of technological progress, which frees people from the need to work. Well, yes, it has not yet been resolved - except for the construction of society by various unnecessary structures, no one has yet come up with anything to solve it, ”explained Svyatoslav Zabelin.