The Village of Yazyl. Starodorozhsky District.
Public Association for Animal Protection “EGIDA” received a phone call from Nataliya Dmitrievna Kurulyova. She phoned and told us about the massacre of dogs in the Village of Yazyl. Nataliya moved from the Capital City of Minsk to the country hoping to find some “peace and quiet” there. They bought a solid house, started to settle down… but her family didn’t manage to get the long hoped-for rest and comfort in the village.
“There are very many evil, heartless, indifferent...

MOGILYOV. Mogilyov public utility company is located at 58А Gomelskaya Rd., the City of Mogilyov. Recently this company has started to admit volunteers, who have only one burning desire: to help captured animals and rescue them. But it is difficult for those individuals who have always treated animals like garbage and dropped it (i.e. this “garbage”) at dump sites for future disposal… to turn into HUMAN BEINGS “all of a sudden”. Similarly, the employees of Mogilyov public utility company did not manage to remain HUMAN...

In the memory of all stray animals killed and tortured on the territory of Belarus in the 21st century. The 21st century. The centre of Europe. We endlessly admire our clean towns and cities, another Wonder of the World – the National Library of the Republic of Belarus, breathtaking stadiums, ever-growing possibilities for Belarusians… If you drive a couple of kilometers off Minsk though, you will witness the barbaric massacre of stray and domestic cats and dogs – our officials’ worst enemy and most dangerous threat. Housing and municipal services...

The vast majority of Belarusian citizens put up with the existing system of stray animal management and non-stop killings of homeless animals. This is particularly true with the dwellers of small Belarusian towns and settlements. In the meantime, the catching and killing of stray animals and lack of animal welfare laws as well as animal shelters in the country is a very sensitive issue for metropolitan dwellers. The intellectuals, namely scientists, teachers, writers, performers, and other highly educated people, feel particularly negative about...

This report documents how dogs and cats which were absolutely healthy before they were caught and brought to "Fauna city" catch infectious diseases and why dogs kept by "Fauna city" are killed after first sneezing. Let us in the beginning introduce Mrs Natalya Belanova and explain what "Fauna city" is. Natalya Belanova has been the chairman of the animal protection organisation "Egida" of Minsk since 2006. In 2007 a new administrative entity, "Fauna city", was established by the Minsk authorities as «institution for collecting and exterminating...

There is no shelter for animals in any town of Belarus. There are only few drop-off stations for dogs and cats caught or brought by owners in our country. These institutions are obliged to keep the animals for at least 5 days in order to find new owners. If no new owner is found the animals are killed. The killing has to be done by a veterinarian in the most humane way. According procedures are established by the «Rules on operating of the organization dealing with capture, shooting, maintenance and euthanasia of stray animals».

Some methods that public services of Belarus use to combat fleas in the basements of apartment blocks and the way the sanitary regulations for fighting fleas affect the lives of cats and their owners.
Belarus has no law against owners who throw their cats into the streets. Neither has it animal shelters which would accept cats surrendered by owners for some reason. Instead, Belarus has tough sanitary regulations relating to the areas where homeless cats live. These sanitary regulations prescribe no homeless cats to be kept in the basements...

This is a story telling why we (i.e. volunteers taking care of dogs) decided to leave… Or, to be more exact, how we were made to leave. Little by little, bit by bit… It should be mentioned straight away that we did realize what our municipal temporary shelter for animals was like. We were fully aware of the fact it was not an ASYLUM. The irony is that it is they (not us) who advertised the temporary shelter as an asylum – both in printed media and on TV. It is they (not us) who claimed that only sick animals were euthanized, not animals exceeding the period...

When you are sick, when you have pain somewhere, you take a pill or other kind of medicine and the pain leaves you. But does the pain leave the dogs that this medicine was tested on? Did you ever think of this? I will answer for all of us: "No, we didn't!" Why? In Belarus there a lof of reasons. The first and the main reason is that since quite a long time an indifferent, and often cruel, attitude towards animas was formed in this country. This was caused by the absence of the legislation protecting the animals from the cruel treatment.

"By pet animal is meant any animal kept or intended to be kept by man in particular in his household for private enjoyment and companionship." European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals Chapter I - General provisions Geographically, Belarus is located in the heart of Europe and shares borders with Poland to the West, Ukraine to the South, Russia to the East and North and the Baltic States to the Northwest, which makes it the closest neighbour of the European Union. The surprising thing is that very little is known to those in the EU...

There is a National Committee on Bioethics in Belarus. What a grand title! In reality this committee is a commission inside the Ministry of Health. The members of this committee are employees of the ministry designated by order of the minister. These people are mainly concerned about health of people than the humane treatment of animals. For them it is apparently not a problem if 20, 40 or 100 dogs die for obtaining scientific results in drug-tests or for writing a PhD paper. This committee is not a legal person and it doesn't have a statute of its own...