Stray dogs 'brought here' terrorize Volgograd village

Residents of Volgograd«s Krasnoarmeysky District report an invasion of aggressive stray dogs in the village of Nizhnyaya Sarepta. Citizens who have already suffered from bites by homeless animals insist that compassionate animal lovers not only feed the stray dogs but also actively build them shelters from available materials. At the same time, according to Volgograd residents, the dog-catching service and local administration are inactive, and the number of bitten people increases every day.

A resident of Sarepta, Lyubov, complained about homeless packs of tailed animals. According to the woman, a pack of huge mongrels rushed at her during a walk, and passersby refused to help.

«It was on Sologubova Street, where the dormitory is. A pack of stray dogs lives there. On 12 January I was walking home from my daughter«s past the garbage area. The mongrels first just ran up to me, then started attacking,» Lyubov said. «When a woman walked by, she only said, »They are afraid of you themselves,« but they are attacking me! Well, she went on, and the dogs ran after her, but one, black and white, still bit me on the leg. Lucky it»s winter and I had a lot of clothes. At the trauma center they wrote «abrasion,» but I«m still going for rabies shots.»

The next day after the attack, as Lyubov said, she submitted a request to catch the aggressive dog. However, when specialists arrived on the call, they could not find the mongrel.

«Later I was told that in the dormitory on Sologubova some woman keeps dogs. We went to her in the evening, but it turned out that was not the case. But on the fifth or sixth floor lives a mongrel named Valera, which is sometimes aggressive,» the woman continued. «The next day we wrote to the dog-catching service, to MBU «Severnoye». They arrived on 23 January and said to find the dog. When they brought me to the scene of the attack, one spotted dog came out. When the catcher went out with food, it looked at him and ran away. They told me: «Write a refusal, that you didn»t recognize the dog.« But how can I recognize it? I don»t remember what it looks like; I was screaming and fighting back while a woman and a man stood there. At least they could have asked about my condition.»

According to Lyubov, this is not an isolated case of dogs attacking passersby. The woman is convinced that stray animals from all over Volgograd are brought to the village, and those in search of food and shelter scatter throughout the district.

«When I was last getting shots, the doctor told me I«m not the only one coming for these procedures. A recently bitten man from Arsenyeva Street is also coming for vaccinations,» she continued. «At Sarepta station there are blankets and mattresses for dogs. Recently a store was built there, now all the dog beds are covered with cellophane. Across from the dormitory, a little booth was built, now I»m afraid to walk past. At the church there are small dogs and at the construction site a whole family. I told the «dog-catching» that they could also take them, but I don«t know how many they took. I wrote to the administration, they said to wait 30 days for an answer. Here everywhere you look, dogs, dogs. As if they are brought here from other districts and released to us.»

As explained in MBU «Severnoye» (Municipal Budgetary Institution «Severnoye»), the actions of the dog-catching service are justified, and any visits and requests are closely monitored. Nevertheless, the institution promised to deal with the invasion of mongrels.

«We have been checked more than once by relevant services for inaction, and very often it happens that either a person did not get through and needs to call back in about three minutes, or there simply is no application, even though the person was at reception,» the institution said. «In fact, the service reacted, but it«s normal that they couldn»t find the dog the first time; it runs around. We will clarify the information on this request and look into the matter.»

Earlier we wrote about how the mother of a teenager bitten by an aggressive mongrel sued the Volgograd city administration for 30,000 rubles (about $300 at current rates). The court found the municipality responsible for the incident and forced them to compensate for moral damages. We spoke with the victim and a lawyer and found out how to make officials pay for a stray dog attack.