Press Release, 18.05.2023

Photo: Artur Gaiduk / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Artur Gaiduk, MP of the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies from the Yabloko party, sent an appeal to the Public Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia, where he quoted the norms of federal laws and articles of the Constitution that or contrary to the legislative initiative that gives the regional authorities the right to independently solve the problem of stray animals, including killing them by methods or means.

On 16 May, the State Duma adopted this bill in the first reading. Artur Gaiduk asks to notify the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin about the inadmissibility of adopting the bill in its present form.

Gaiduk notes that similar amendments proposed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation in February 2023 have already received a negative assessment from the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

Artur Gaiduk also emphasises that the amendments allow not to apply a number of provisions of Article 18 Part 2 of the Federal Law “On the Responsible Treatment of Animals and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation”, according to which it is expressly prohibited “to use substances, medicines, methods and technical devices leading to injury or death of animals”.

The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation envisages liability for cruelty to animals. The bill allows the regions of the Russian Federation, in violation of the provisions of criminal law, to use any methods of killing animals, including causing them pain and suffering, that is, it legalises the commission of criminal acts.

“The humane treatment of animals that have become homeless as a result of careless attitude of their former owners is our responsibility, the responsibility of the whole society. “We are responsible for those whom we have tamed” – this principle should not be just words. The adoption of the bill will make it permissible to kill lost, abandoned or street-born dogs and cats. This will lead to an increase in the already high aggression and cruelty in our society – not only in relation to animals, but also in relation to people,” Artur Gaiduk writes.

It should be noted that on 3 May, when the bill was discussed at the relevant committee of the State Duma, the Yabloko party officially appealed to its authors urging them to withdraw the document. Yabloko proposed its own programme for overcoming the crisis in the treatment of homeless animals. On 12 May, on the threashold of the first reading, all State Duma deputies received an appeal from Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov urging them to vote against the bill.

ARTUR GAIDUK

is a deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly, the Yabloko faction. Bureau member of the Pskov regional branch of Yabloko. Ambulabce doctor of the Pskov Ambulance Station