Translated material
The court fined Irkutsk animal activists for picketing against the law on killing stray dogs
The Kirovsky District Court of Irkutsk fined animal rights activists Tatyana Tayurskaya and Yulia Shakiro for participating in an uncoordinated picket against the bill on killing stray dogs.
As Shakiro told Mediazona, she was fined 15 thousand rubles, and she appealed the decision . Tayurskaya was fined 12 thousand rubles, the publication 7x7 reported .
In the case of Tayurskaya, the police recognized the balloons in the shape of dogs, with which the animal activist came to the regional legislative assembly, as visual propaganda.
Yulia Shakiro was there with a real dog named Busya. The pet was wearing a blanket with the inscriptions “I want to live” and “Looking for a home.” These phrases served as the basis for the protocol.
“I had a live dog with me, for which I was looking for owners,” she told Mediazona. — The dog was abandoned by its previous owner and demanded that it be taken away urgently. Because she was tired of her overnight and was ready to kill her, take her to the forest, throw her on the road under cars.”
Photo: Yulia Shakiro
Both animal rights activists were detained on April 15 near the legislative assembly of the Irkutsk region. On that day, deputies passed a bill in the first reading that allows a stray animal to be killed if it is “terminally ill or aggressive.”
In the summer of 2023, the State Duma allowed the regions to decide for themselves how to control the number of stray dogs, including “humanely killing them.” The decision caused protests from animal rights activists, but after that the regions began to legalize the killing of animals. For example, in the Altai Territory in the first six months of 2025, 62 stray dogs were killed .
In July 2024, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation called the “killing” of animals “an exceptional measure, justified only when other measures cannot provide an adequate level of human protection.” By the end of 2025, the killing of stray animals was allowed in 26 regions of Russia.