Official explains incomplete dog catchers' work in Samosyrovo

Stanislav Fadeyev, head of the Sanitary Maintenance and Improvement Department of the Kazan Executive Committee’s Housing and Utilities Department, answered questions about the inadequate work of dog catchers in the village of Samosyrovo (a village near Kazan). His testimony as a witness was heard at a court hearing in the case of Iosif Lifshits, the owner of an industrial base (warehouse complex) near which dogs mauled to death 48-year-old village resident Zhanna Khusainova.

Fadeyev said that their department’s responsibilities include carrying out activities related to handling stray animals. They work roughly as follows: they receive requests for animal capture from various sources, send them to the catchers, and the catchers report to the committee on the work done (the number of dogs in the request, the number of dogs captured, and video materials confirming the work).

In this regard, Lifshits’ lawyers asked Fadeyev whether the committee was fully performing its work in the field of animal capture, citing the fact that the work was not fully carried out (not all dogs that disturbed the village residents were caught).

«“A certain Anna reports that in Samosyrovo village, stray dogs attacked her — 18 of them, bit her leg. And it also says here that two dogs were caught. As the client, were you satisfied with the execution of this work? Out of 18 — 2,”» the lawyer quoted one of the complainants.

The committee employee struggled to answer this question but added that in the event of incomplete capture of dogs under a request, the catchers must go there again to catch all of them. However, judging by the dialogue between the lawyers and the witness, the remaining 16 dogs had not been taken away at that time.

«All requests are not compared: so many came in, so many were caught. I’m not defending the catching, but I can’t explain,» Fadeyev noted.

On 3 February, the hearing of Lifshits’ case continued at the Sovetsky District Court in Kazan. Also present in the courtroom were the victim’s husband, Rustem Khusainov, and animal rights activists who came in support of the defendant.

Recall that on 9 November 2024, in the village of Samosyrovo, dogs mauled Khusainova to death as she was walking to work. The woman’s relatives and close ones are certain that she was attacked by animals from the nearby industrial base, whose owner is Lifshits. The Investigative Committee (SK) holds the same version.

The businessman himself believes that the deceased fell victim to dogs from a forest plantation. On 12 November, Lifshits was detained on suspicion of causing death by negligence, but later the case was reclassified to providing services that do not meet safety requirements, resulting in death by negligence.

Lifshits was placed under house arrest, but later released with a restriction on certain actions.