«I don’t like animals – I am here to earn money!»

One of the first instructions given by the new director was the order to put down all cats and dogs, that had spent 5 days or more at the enterprise, regardless of the fact that there were pedigree pets, lost pets with collars and tags (chips), sterilized pets (that had been sterilized at the expense of volunteers and caretakers before the arrival of the new director) or animals patronized by volunteers among them. The new director gave instructions to free 3 rows of cages, allegedly, to carry out disinfection – 32 dogs were euthanized. Sterilization was prohibited by the director, because he decided that it was just a trick to increase the period of keeping the animals. In reply to the employees’ request to comment on his actions, Tamashevsky claimed that he did not like animals and came to «Fauna Goroda» only to make money...

It gets worse and worse as it goes on. The new director gave instructions to take all the mats out of kennels and cages only because they «mar the scenery». Dogs, haggard and hunger-bitten even without that, have to sleep on the cold and wet floor. Apart from that, Tamashevsky prohibited visits to the temporary shelter, having decided that «there are too many people swarming around». Now only 20 volunteers are admitted to the territory, and they are checked against a special list. The director allowed to walk only 43 sterilized dogs out of a hundred dogs kept at the temporary shelter at the moment. The rest of the animals have to sit in their cages, as they are «wild» according to Tamashevsky’s words.

Is this war? Yes, it is!

The indignant volunteers are doing their best to attract the public’s attention to the arbitrary action at the temporary shelter. Not long ago there was a TV item in «X-Zone» programme on the First channel, which related about the things going on at the temporary shelter. Having learnt about the TV item, Tamashevsky summoned the employees and «declared war». The director «delivered an attack» and made arrangements that healthy, vaccinated and sterilized animals, that were patronized by the volunteers and had spent quite a long time at the enterprise, should be put down. Apart from this, the director gave instructions to immediately exterminate all the animals that had spent at «Fauna» more than 5–10 days, from the day of their capture. It must be said that previously only sick or very aggressive animals were euthanized, the others were kept as long as possible with a view to find the old owners or search for new owners. Mass euthanasia took place only if the cages were overcrowded or urgent disinfection was required. «Regulations on animal capture and keeping haven’t changed since then, – said Deputy Director for Animal Protection N. Belianova in her interview with a reporter from interfax.by. – 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 June 1. Now the cost of one day spent at the enterprise equals 4 205 Br, i.e. an animal nearing the expiration date will cost about 40 000 Br, а dog that has spent about one month at the enterprise will cost around 120 000 Br! The same rules apply even to little puppies that live on their mother’s milk only. It is worth mentioning that quite large sums of money are allocated on animal keeping – they come 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 raised only to complicate the process of rescuing the remaining animals. The list of animals to be euthanized today includes 27 dogs.
Animal protectors are once again addressing the citizens of Minsk with a request: help us to rescue the remaining animals!

You can view the catalogue of dogs at http://egida.by/dir/12
and the catalogue of cats at http://egida.by/dir/13

Have a look at these doomed animals. If you decide to take one of the inmates, you will save one life and find a loyal friend!

Source: Interfax, 09.06.2009