Press Release, 17.02.2018

On Saturday, February 17, presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky visited the Sheremetyevsky dog shelter of the Charitable Foundation “In Good Hands”. He considers it necessary to adopt a law on protection of animals. As a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Yavlinsky proposed to introduce measures against cruel treatment of animals: two years of imprisonment for murder or a fine of 700,000 roubles (approximately Euro 10,000).

Grigory Yavlinsky examined the shelter and met with its inhabitants. There are almost 280 dogs in the shelter.

The uniqueness of the shelter is that it has warm crates. There are virtually no such shelters in Moscow and throughout Russia. The Sheremetyevsky dog shelter contains about 200 smooth-haired dogs who can not live in the cold in warm crates.

Every month about twenty dogs are adopted from the shelter. However, once a month one adopted dog dies because of the dog hunters who lay out the poisoned food on the ground, Lydia Belozerskaya, administrator of the shelter, said.

Grigory Yavlinsky calls for adoption of the law on protection of animals. He proposed to introduce measures for the cruel treatment of animals (two years of imprisonment for murder or a fine of 700,000 roubles) several years ago, when he was deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. However, the State Duma has failed to pass a law on protection of animals for almost 15 years.

“Protection of animals is a matter of principle. In my opinion, it is exclusively political, this is a very important part of my programme and a key direction of activity in the country in general,” Yavlinsky said.

Grigory Yavlinsky believes that cruel treatment of animals demonstrates the society’s moral order.

“We should not be surprised, at such an attitude to animals, that bloody crimes occur in schools, and there grow up children with cruelty, hatred and anger already in their blood – this is because it is allowed to kill animals in the country. When society does not know how to handle animals, I assure you, it abolishes its soldiers. It then does not care about those who are sent to fight. And then these people die. And there emerge nameless graves. Parents do not know what happened to their children. This is all linked into one chain – cruelty and anger. The atmosphere in the society leads to the most serious crimes,” Yavlinsky stated.

The politician drew the attention of journalists that many dogs are being killed before large-scale events – the Olympics and the World Championships. And often this is done under the guise of “noble” goals – they catch animals for sterilisation, but in fact they are killed. There is alsocorruption, as billions of roubles are spent on it, the presidential candidate said.

Grigory Yavlinsky said that he had been helping to a dog shelter in Tatarstan for several years already, and told that he had had two dogs. The first – a mongrel – was picked up by his children, it lived in the Yavlinsky family for 15 years, and the second dog was a sheepdog.

Photo: Grigory Yavlinsky and Irene Belenkaya, hostess of the shelter.

The leader of Yabloko introduced Irene Belenkaya, hostess of the private shelter, to journalists.

“There are people who themselves, without any help from the state, pay huge money for renting the land, redeeming the guilt of the whole society for how it treats animals,” he said.

Irene Belenkaya told to journalists that huge amounts of money go to electricity, rent, dog food and cure and operations for dogs, but there are very few people who want to help, many turn away because these are stray dogs.

“This is the most accurate characteristic, what the system of power in Russia is like today. And this attitude is the same to anyone either to dogs, or people ” Grigory Yavlinsky said.

The staff of the shelter showed Grigory Yavlinsky a dog named Yurma. The presidential candidate went for a walk with this dog.

All the staff of the shelter are specially trained. All dogs are examined and tested by dog handlers. Each dog has a certain summary: how it goes with children, how it treats cats, how it treats other dogs, how it behaves in an apartment, and so on. This is necessary in order to be able to find a family for a dog. All dogs are sterilized and neutered. All the dogs are walked twice a day.

There are people who come to the shelter just to take a walk with a dog. Not everyone has the opportunity to take a dog home. All dogs are waiting for their masters and homes. Maybe your dog is already waiting for you in the Sheremetyevsky shelter?