Tomsk Woman Holds Solo Picket Over Stray Dog Poisonings

Yulia Vlasova, a Tomsk resident and animal rights activist, held a solo picket outside the city hall. She told an NGS70.RU journalist that she aims to draw the administration«s attention to the problem of stray dog poisonings in the city. The woman believes that someone is »feeding« the animals a prescription drug.

In February of last year, Vlasova also staged a picket at the city hall. At that time, she placed a dog«s corpse on the porch. Tomsk Mayor Dmitry Makhinya called her action hooliganism. Later, police determined that the dog died »as a result of exposure to a toxic substance.«

Today, February 3, Yulia held a new picket at the city hall, but this time not with a dog«s corpse, but with a placard in her hands: »Mass killings of animals on the streets of Tomsk. Is the administration not involved?«

«For several years now, poisonings of stray animals have been occurring in the city, the latest happened at the end of January on Pyatoy Armii Street. The modus operandi is always the same — dogs are poisoned with a prescription drug, which is not easy to obtain. Death from this drug does not occur immediately; dogs convulse in severe seizures for an hour, it»s very painful,« she told our editorial office.

According to observations by Yulia and other animal rights activists, mass poisonings began to occur after the start of work by a new contractor for capturing stray animals. They came to this conclusion when they compared the addresses of poisonings with the addresses of capture requests. They matched.

According to her, since the beginning of 2026, animal rights activists have recorded about 15 cases of poisonings.

Since 2015, dogs were captured by the company «Verny Drug» (Loyal Friend). But in 2022–2023, the city administration had complaints about their work: the contractor failed to promptly capture aggressive animals that were dangerous to local residents. Therefore, in the spring of 2023, the mayor«s office signed a temporary contract with a new contractor — the »Specialized Organization for Stray Animal Problems« (SOBZh) from Seversk. The mayor»s office confirmed to NGS70.RU that the contract for capture this year was signed with them as well.

«An ordinary person who is afraid of dogs might say: »Right, dogs have no place on the street.« But just think: the city signs a contract for the capture and keeping of these dogs and pays the contractor millions of rubles (hundreds of thousands of dollars at current rates), this is our money, the taxpayers»,« added the animal rights activist.

The woman clarified that regarding the latest poisoning case, a police report was filed on January 29.

The mayor«s office told NGS70.RU that the work of the municipal capture service is strictly regulated by the contract and current laws:

«The methods used for capture must comply with established veterinary-sanitary norms and legal requirements.»

They also added that if Tomsk residents have evidence or facts indicating violations, they should report them to the police:

«Only they are authorized to conduct an inspection for the presence of elements of a crime or administrative offense.»