Chernozemye Officials Tell Activists: Take Stray Dogs Home

Colleagues from the Lipetsk publication GOROD48 recently reported a remarkable story. In the Matyrsky microdistrict, local animal rights activists had set up dog houses for stray dogs and created a feeding station, but the Chief Inspectorate Office (CIO — a municipal structure) sent vehicles and removed everything.

«Animals will defend their food source»

One of the animal activists complained to the editorial office about the officials, saying she was sending a «post of pain and human brutality» — the dogs were condemned to death. However, the CIO told journalists that they acted based on letters from the regional veterinary department stating that there should be no unsupervised animals or illegal structures on public land. The city hall explained that dog houses can only be placed on plots specially designated for animal handling — for this, animal rights activists need to contact the regional Ministry of Property.

— As soon as stray dogs got houses, they started considering them their home, their territory. Especially since compassionate people feed them there. And animals will defend their food source. And who will pay for the bites? We compensate victims for damages from injuries caused by street dog attacks, — journalists quote a CIO representative.

And they convey the words of Natalya Semina, head of the control and supervisory powers department of the regional veterinary department: that the Lipetsk city hall, which removed the dog houses from undesignated territory, complied with urban improvement rules. And Natalya Semina also recommended that animal rights activists who pity the dogs take them home — I quote her direct speech from the note:

— There are those who want dog houses for street dogs in Matyrsky, but the majority does not want such neighbors, fearing for their lives and health. Every animal should have an owner who is responsible for the pet. If everyone obeys the laws, there will be more order.

A song of common sense. And one can rejoice for the neighboring Lipetsk residents: their officials seem to have seen the light and are finally putting people«s lives and health above the welfare of not dogs — but of rabid animal rights activism with its false humanism.

What human lives cost

Enlightenment descended upon the Lipetsk authorities at the end of 2024, when local governor Igor Artamonov submitted a bill to the Regional Council on the possibility of partially euthanizing stray dogs in temporary holding facilities. There are three indications: unmotivated aggressiveness, infectious disease, unbearable physical suffering in an incurable condition (severe injuries after an accident, advanced cancer, etc.). The head of the regional veterinary department, Mikhail Andreev, then acknowledged the «insufficient effectiveness of CNR*»: the number of stray dogs is not decreasing — the number of people injured by their teeth is growing. And the budget spends millions both on maintaining the dogs and on compensation not only to victims but also to relatives of those whose loved ones died due to unsupervised dogs.

In July 2024, the Soviet District Court of Lipetsk ordered the city hall to pay 3 million rubles (about $33,300 at current rates) in moral damages to Lyubov Albul, who lost her 11-year-old son: on 21 April 2022, the boy was hit by a garbage truck wheel while running away from a pack of stray dogs. Both the city administration and the regional veterinary department then hotly objected and blamed everything on the driver. But investigators dropped the charges against him: an examination showed that he had no technical possibility to notice the child and avoid the collision. However, on the video footage shown in court, it was clear — I quote the decision:

«The dogs first surround him (the boy. — Author«s note), he runs across from them to the other side of the street to a residential building, moves along the wall of the house, the dogs pursue him with barking, and he runs away from the dogs».

A woman — an eyewitness to the tragedy — said at the hearing: before chasing the boy, these same dogs chased a girl, who hid from them behind a car; the enraged pack was driven away by a bank cleaner and a passerby. And one of the key quotes in the court decision is this:

«[The witness] explained that unsupervised dogs constantly ran and rushed at cars <...>, they were fed by residents of apartment buildings, the dogs lived there from puppy age, then grew up, began to form packs, and show aggression. After what happened, the dogs disappeared for a while, then returned already with chips».

By chips, most likely, ear tags are meant. So think about it: the dogs, because of which a child died, were returned to the same place where they were fed by animal lovers, by officials after CNR procedures. This boy, running from a wild pack, came with his mother to Lipetsk from Lugansk, fleeing hostilities. His class teacher said in court that he still had fear inside: when planes flew by, he could start hiding. Otherwise, he was quiet and calm.

***

After the absolutely monstrous death of her only son, Lyubov Albul suffered a nervous breakdown and was treated in a hospital. The Lipetsk city hall did not want to pay the mother, who had lost the meaning of life, 3 million rubles (about $33,300 at current rates) — they went to complain to the regional court. But there too, the officials were put in their place. And on 27 October 2023, in the area of the Lipetsk silicate plant, a stray pack fatally mauled 32-year-old Igor Bushuev. In December 2024, his mother was awarded 500,000 rubles (about $5,600 at current rates) from the city hall as compensation for moral damages.

What appeasing animal rights activists leads to

What the investigations by the Lipetsk Investigative Committee into the criminal aspect of local officials« actions ended with after these deaths is unknown. However, they ultimately passed their bill on partial euthanasia of stray dogs: the new rules in the region have been in effect since 1 March 2025. On 2 June, local media reported that in the first three months of the law»s operation, one aggressive dog was euthanized: possibly saving someone«s life. And separately, journalists noted: Lipetsk veterinarians explain to residents that feeding unsupervised dogs is not allowed. To understand the axiom that adequate experts on animal instincts talk about, two human lives were needed.

Information on the results for the entire last year has not yet come through, but in any case, it«s too early to draw conclusions: over the years of CNR, the situation with stray dogs and the animal rights madness around them has become literally life-threatening across the country. About how in Voronezh officials and the Investigative Committee silenced the death of Artyom D., who was mauled to death by unsupervised dogs in the yard of a residential building on Mashinostroiteley — not far from a school — I have already told. And in light of recent events in Lipetsk, I suggest Vice-Mayor Lyudmila Borodina — the main ideologist of CNR in our city — print out the posthumous court decisions and hang them in her office. On 21 December 2021, in an interview with RIA Voronezh, she stated: «We consider it right when housing is built for dogs, when they are fed. A well-fed dog is — a kind dog».

In January 2024, in Borovoy, local animal rights activists set up dog houses for stray dogs near the road to a school and kindergarten, and local residents were terrorized by a pack of 10 «well-fed dogs». Animal rights activists then boasted that it was allegedly all with the permission of the city hall — specifically, an employee of the environmental department, Anna Zolotaryova. The city hall announced a «difficult situation» and reassured — the houses, they say, were «moved as far as possible from residential buildings».

And what«s more: the »Molodezhny« market opposite the »Aksioma« shopping center in the Severny district has turned into a kennel. The pack has at least five dogs — I lose count trying to find detours. Well-fed bodies sleep in specially placed boxes, on empty counters, and even in chairs. Dogs with tags — officials brought them here, after washing budget money. The municipal shelter had not yet properly started working, but had already concluded state contracts: from October to December 2025 — for 13 million rubles (about $144,400 at current rates).

And here«s a fresh story: Andrei Shabunin, a resident of the »Shinnik-1« garden partnership, who has long been fighting stray packs that have overrun the settlement, received a call from an animal rights activist on behalf of the city hall threatening an inspection of why he had not yet been mobilized. The dogs in »Shinnik« are being overfed by a certain lady, who has in her social network friends the same administration employee Anna Zolotaryova.

Our material about «Shinnik» came out on 20 January, the administration promised that catchers from the municipal shelter would go to «Shinnik». Today, the 26th, I was informed: they went as many as two times, on 20 and 21 January — dogs were not found. Nevertheless, Shabunin achieved administrative punishment for the feeder Lyudmila. We will give instructions on how he managed this in future publications. And also Voronezh1.ru awaits answers from the regional Investigative Committee: let them reveal the secrets of how dozens of their inspections and criminal cases, which we are told about after each new child bitten by stray dogs child, end.

* CNR — short for «Capture, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return to natural habitat.» A state program for handling stray animals.