Do not pull here!

Volunteers were forbidden to visit animal shelters, although this can be done by observing the social distance

About the author
Anastasia Egorova- dog handler, specialist in the working qualities of the Dogs of the RKF, the world champion in Adjilitia (dog handle)

At the very beginning of the self -isolation from March 26 to March 28, with reference to the mayor’s decree, all Moscow municipal shelters were closed to visit volunteers. There are thirteen of them, each in each of the thousands of dogs and several hundred cats. Such visits in the understanding of prefectures responsible for shelters fall under the point "Mass cultural events in the fresh air." It is unlikely that those who decided this imagine how massively people are eager to spend time in an institution where two or three thousand dogs are continuously barking in the enclosures and make air “fresh”.

There are full -time employees in the shelters. By the norm, there should be one person with 50-60 animals, in reality - at 200–250. The duties of employees include feeding and basic cleaning. It is impossible to manage anything else with such a number of staff. There are no interruptions in the supply of feed. But tenders for providing shelters win such feeds, about the composition of which you better not know. You would definitely not give it to your Murzik and Rex. Volunteers have always been walking dogs, this is not the responsibility of employees, and with so many animals this is impossible.

In one shelter in printers, two and a half thousand dogs and 100 cats. Dogs live in aviaries (more precisely, they should be called cells) often no more than two by two meters, 5-6 dogs each.

It can be young active teenagers who are difficult and bad without the ability to move. There may be old or sick animals to which they do not give more strong ones - they put food in common buckets. Volunteers came every day, except for sanitary. More often, of course, on weekends. Only on volunteers there were all the responsibilities for walking and socializing dogs, at least a short opportunity to move and get used to a person in order to have at least some chance to find a new home.

Now the dogs have been sitting without a single walk since the end of March, shit in the aviary. Workers only change sawdust in the cells.

The volunteers also brought normal food, veterinary drugs and ammunition, which were transmitted by charitable organizations or ordinary people. Many animals in the shelter need special care, medical food, procedures. The full -time workers have no time or opportunities for such. As it is not included in their duties to attach homeless animals. Volunteers always did this.

Throughout the world, during the pandemic, the number of dogs and cats, which were taken from shelters to new families, increased several times. When you don’t need to go anywhere, it’s easier for a person to help a new pet adapt in the house, get used to the owner. And dogs and cats help people easier to survive this difficult time of stress and uncertainty.

In most shelters in Moscow, volunteers were first forbidden to transfer feed. In all shelters, except for two, they stopped attaching animals. At first, the ban was valid until April 4, then until the 30th, now it is not known how long.

The capture of animals from the street continues. New cats and dogs are brought every day. And to observe measures to adapt them with full -time workers, already overloaded, is not possible.

Volunteers treated requests to the city hall, local prefectures, to the portals mos.ru and kremlin.ru. From everywhere they received unsubscribes with one text of all instances, the meaning of which is reduced to “it was prohibited”, only names and positions change. And volunteers are called and asked to stop writing letters.

The volunteer of the shelter in printers, says: “If the animals are not attached, they will die there from crowding and infections with which new pets are brought. After all, they did not stop the capture, and in the absence of volunteers, the load on doctors and employees increased even more. Dogs have been sitting without walking since the end of March. We have not seen animals for more than a month. ”

Animal attachment can be organized without violating self -isolation rules. Volunteers of the shelter in Kozhukhovo and Shcherbinka are already debugging this process, but the leadership of other shelters is afraid to take responsibility. For two more shelters, online attachment is officially allowed. This is evidenced by a letter published by the Department of Housing and Communal Services of Moscow on April 21.

It is not clear why this resolution does not apply to other shelters. The future owner can first look at the animals on the site, choose remotely (according to the catalog). Chat with a curator-volunteer, pass an interview. If the curator agrees to transfer the animal, one future owner and one volunteer in personal protective equipment come to the shelter, the volunteer shows animals from the short list, the owner is determined. After that, an agreement is concluded. Over the weekend and in “peacetime” 2-4 animals usually leave. This is not a "mass event in the fresh air." Volunteers can also deliver pets to a new house and inspect the conditions for their maintenance. They are ready to independently provide personal protective equipment, draw up a work schedule for one or several people only from experienced employees, who already had a permanent pass from the leadership of shelters, just to give their wards the opportunity to leave the shelter.