In Tolochin, a dog, the yard's favorite, was shot in front of people

A reader of "SB Belarus Segodnya", Natalya Sulkovskaya from the urban settlement of Kokhanovo, Tolochin district, witnessed a wild incident. She works as a nurse at the lyceum. She was on sick leave that morning and saw how employees of the "Kokhanovo-ZhKKh" enterprise were shooting stray animals.

"A stray dog named Frosya lived in our yard. She was kind," Natalya writes to the editorial office. "I saw a car with a local police officer drive into the yard at 9:35 AM. And how the utility workers, in front of the residents... shot Frosya! Children witnessed the poor animal bleeding out. Moreover, when they were shooting at the dog, the projectile ricocheted off the entrance door."

Sulkovskaya and her 9 neighbors call this incident nothing less than torture of animals and people. They believe that to prevent such a flagrant case from happening again, it cannot be left without public attention.

However, there is another side to the problem. According to the Tolochin District Executive Committee, 5 people have contacted "Kokhanovo-ZhKKh" this year demanding measures be taken against stray dogs. To find out why Frosya earned the affection of some residents of the urban settlement and why she so annoyed others, a correspondent went to Kokhanovo.

The houses № 4 and № 5 in question are five-story buildings. The yard between them is overgrown with greenery. Children are playing nearby in the playground. Natalya Sulkovskaya shows the scene of the incident and tells Frosya's story:

- After her owner died, the dog settled in our yard. She lived in the basement. She had puppies there. I went to the utility services and asked them to take the blind puppies away. No one paid attention then. And when the puppies opened their eyes, this terrible massacre happened. Two puppies were taken by kind people afterwards. The other two were probably killed too...

Angelika Tsybulskaya, along with her 6-year-old son Ignat, watched the dog shooting scene from the window. The woman cannot understand who the harmless animal bothered:

- Almost all the neighborhood children played with Frosya, they pulled her by the ears. She never barked at them. She was old and deaf. They could have put her in a car and driven her away somewhere. My child was in shock after the shot! I demanded explanations from the precinct officer, and he told me: "We have a district executive committee order for shooting."

Natalia and Anzhelika showed me the door of the first entrance of house No. 5, which, according to them, was hit by buckshot after the shot at Frosya. I did not notice any traces on it.

It is rumored that Frosya might have nipped or scared one of the children in the yard. That's why the residents started complaining about her.

Among the applications to "Kokhanovo-Housing and Communal Services" I found an appeal from Maria Kuchinskaya, a resident of house No. 5. She said that Frosya did not bite her 5-year-old grandson, but scared him several times with loud barking:

- Did we really have to wait until she bit someone? It's right that they got rid of her. Although maybe they shouldn't have killed her... You should have seen the unsanitary conditions and stench in the basement when she lived there with puppies. She was guarding them and became aggressive. The male dogs that were around her bared their teeth at people. They had dog weddings here. All the flowerbeds and paths were ruined. Is this acceptable? Let compassionate animal lovers take stray dogs into their apartments and care for them there. And take them out on a leash and with a muzzle.

The precinct police inspector of the Tolochin District Department of Internal Affairs, Vadim Gorbunov, assured that the shooting of stray animals was carried out with all safety precautions.

The utility workers claim that there was no ricochet into the entrance after the shot and could not have been. As for the shooting, according to Sergey Kvyatkevich, acting director of the state enterprise "Kokhanovo-Housing and Communal Services," he himself is far from delighted with such measures:

- We offered this dog to those who love animals. We were ready to take it to a village somewhere, where it would be chained up to guard the house. We contacted the shelter for stray animals in Vitebsk. But they have nowhere to put their own dogs.

And how, tell me, are we supposed to act if parents come from the playground and complain that stray dogs are scaring their little ones – three-year-olds, five-year-olds? After a pet dog bit a girl in the face in the town of Kokhanovo, the number of complaints increased. We had to react. The shot dog was taken to a special burial site and disposed of.

The problem of stray animals is not new. In Kokhanovo, it is also acute. Last year, 70 stray dogs were eliminated in the town by shooting. The "dog" problem certainly needs to be solved. But definitely not by such wild methods, when defenseless animals are shot in front of people.

Opinion

Natalia Zubova, head of the Vitebsk Animal Shelter, head of the VBOO "Friends of Animals":

- We cannot take animals from another settlement. Our shelter is designed only for the regional center in terms of capacity. Moreover, 3 months ago it completely lost funding from the city budget. However, animals are brought to us from all over the region for sterilization. We perform up to 8 such operations a day.

As for shooting, we have long achieved its ban in Vitebsk. Moreover, since January 2015, such actions have been qualified as animal cruelty. A corresponding article appeared in the Criminal Code. Unfortunately, it is rarely applied. Especially in small settlements. But if there is a precedent where one of the "shooters" is punished, others, I hope, will understand that this cannot be done in the 21st century.

Article 339.1 of the Criminal Code. Cruel treatment of an animal, resulting in its death or injury, committed out of hooligan, mercenary or other base motives, or in the presence of a knowingly minor, is punishable by public works, or a fine, or correctional labor for up to one year, or arrest.

The same act, committed repeatedly or by a group of persons, is punishable by arrest, or restriction of liberty for up to one year, or imprisonment for the same term.

Sergey Golesnik, SB Belarus Today