Homeless Animals and Governors' Aggression Ratings: More than 100 Celebrities Ask Putin to Rescind the Bill on Killing Stray Dogs
Open letter Vladimir Putin appeared on the website of the charity foundation "Giving Hope", turned attention edition "Kedr".
More than 100 celebrities signed the appeal: Dima Bilan, Sergei Garmash, Vladimir Presnyakov, Leonid Yarmolnik, Nikolai Baskov and others. They believe that some regional leaders are pushing the euthanasia bill because they have been sabotaging the federal law on responsible animal care for years and wasting budget funds on other purposes.
In particular, the authors of the letter doubt the veracity of the words of the governor of the Astrakhan region Igor Babushkin, who stated that there are 40000 homeless animals in his region:
"We are confident that Babushkin's figures are exaggerated. We compared the situation in Astrakhan and Balashikha, cities of similar size and population. In 2022, 6000 human bites were registered in Astrakhan (according to the governor), while 279 were registered in Balashikha. Meanwhile, the budget for the "Trap-Sterilize-Vaccinate-Return" program in Astrakhan is 150 million rubles over three years, while in Balashikha it's around 10 million per year. This begs the question: how can the number of stray animals on the streets be growing while the regional authorities are working honestly?"
Celebrities note that Governor of the Astrakhan Region tops the so-called aggression rating in relation to the federal law on the responsible treatment of animals. This rating also includes the leaders of Saratov, Volgograd and Kaluga regions, Transbaikal Territory, the republics of Buryatia and Sakha.
In other regions where the OSVV program is operating fairly, the number of homeless animals has decreased by more than 70% over five years. The letter's authors believe that, instead of amending the law, it would be more logical to adopt the experience of regions that have made progress in dealing with stray animals, such as Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Vologda, Moscow regions, Krasnoyarsk Krai, St. Petersburg.
Photo by: TUT.BY