In retaliation for the criticism aired in «X-Zone» programme (click to watch), the director of «Fauna Goroda» gave instructions to euthanize the pets patronized by volunteers. Animal protectors are once again appealing to Minsk citizens with a request to save the remaining animals.

«Е», just like many other editions, has already raised the problems facing Minsk enterprise «Fauna Goroda» with the arrival of the new director. The deplorable situation, which was earlier associated with capturing and keeping stray and lost animals, has been worsened even further by senselessly hardening animals’ living conditions, practically completely rejecting their sterilization and treatment, and limiting the volunteers’ access to animals.

All this, as well as regular illegal and non-gratuitous deliveries of fluffy «subjects of sale» for testing drugs and conducting other experiments, was discussed in «X-Zone» programme on Belarusian TV last week.

As the organization’s Deputy Director for Animal Protection Nataliya BELIANOVA has told «Е», Director Alexander TAMASHEVSKY proclaimed war against the organization’s employees and volunteers that drew the reporters’ attention to the problem.

The first step was to euthanize healthy, vaccinated and sterilized animals that had spent quite a long time at the enterprise and were patronized by volunteers personally. The director also claimed that all the animals that had spent more than 5–10 days at «Fauna», from the day of their capturing, were to be put down immediately.

It has to be mentioned that in the times of the previous administration, only sick or very aggressive animals were euthanized, the others were kept as long as possible, with the attempts to find the old owners or search for new owners for them. Mass euthanasia took place only if the cages were too crowded or in case of disinfection. That said, most of the animals were rescued – capital city dwellers, many of which read «Е» regularly, took the animals for «temporary keeping» and returned them as soon as the disinfection was over.

«Norms and rules of capturing and keeping animals have not changed since then, – says N. Belianova. – But А. Tamashevsky interprets them, like many other regulatory documents, just as he pleases. At his command, the «ransom» that one has to pay to buy out an animal from the enterprise has become twice as large since the day before yesterday. Now the cost of one day spent at the enterprise equals 4 thousand Rubles, i.e. an animal nearing the expiration date will cost about 40 thousand, а dog that has spent about one month at the enterprise will cost around 120 thousand. The same rules apply even to little puppies that live on their mother’s milk only. The most curious thing is probably that enough money is allocated on animal keeping – it comes through taxes paid by pet owners. But no more than a tenth part of this respectable sum is allocated for animal food or drugs».

The volunteers claim that the actual cost of animal keeping does not correspond to the sum under consideration, so they believe that the price was formally raised only to complicate the process of their rescuing the remaining animals. For example, the list of animals to be euthanized tomorrow includes 27 dogs.

The employees and volunteers of «Fauna Goroda» are addressing the citizens of Minsk with a request to render any possible assistance: buy out a particular animal, take an inmate for «temporary keeping» or provide a vehicle for transportation.

Source: «Daily», Anastasia DOROFEEVA