Hat tip to Sugar Cookie.
The law apparently doesn't mean much there.
www.dailymail.co.uk
The law apparently doesn't mean much there.
The corpses of hundreds of stray dogs have been found piled on top of each other in a container - some decapitated - in what activists say is an example of illegal slaughter.
Animal rights campaigners allege cruelty by a company employed to round up strays in Yakutsk.
The heads of larger dogs were severed, say reports.
[....]
By law strays should be caught, sterilised and released - not slaughtered, they said.
One container revealed by animal activists was filled with the corpses of 153 dogs and 48 cats.
City officials say some animals were slaughtered amid fears of the spread of rabies, a claim that activists say is untrue.
A second container had an unspecified number of destroyed dogs and cats.
One account estimated that there were 260 dead animals in total.
Amid a mounting scandal, the mayor of Yakutsk, Sardana Avksentyeva, one of Russia's most prominent female local politicians, denied giving orders to kill the animals.
Aysen Nikolaev, head of the government in Yakutia, the country's largest region, ordered an immediate investigation as state prosecutors also set about probing the the scandal.
Later the regional veterinary service said 72 animals that had come into contact with a rabid dog had been put down.
Official Pavel Pavlov said some heads were severed before being tested for rabies.
But the activists dispute that there were any cases of rabies, and it is unclear why there is a discrepancy in numbers.
The rabies claim was used as an 'excuse' to slaughter the animals and 'free space' at a temporary shelter for other strays the dog-catching company were impounding, they alleged.
'I was told there was a container full of corpses - and no living animals at the temporary shelter facility,' said activist Zlata Sycheva.
'In the morning we were not allowed there allegedly because of quarantine due to rabies.'
But there was no evidence of rabies among the slaughtered animals, and a second container was found, said the campaigners.
'The dogs could not have killed themselves,' said Sycheva.
Company MUP Zhilkomservice - employed to care for stray dogs - has not responded to local journalists.
The state prosecutors' office in Yakutsk confirmed it had begun legal checks into the grisly case.
Russian officials accused of ordering the deaths of hundreds of dogs
Animal rights campaigners in Russia's coldest city, Yakutsk, have bitten back against officials who claimed that 260 dead animals were slaughtered over fears of the spread of rabies in the region.
