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MOSCOW
(Russia) — If it's any indication of how much the
Russian people love their dogs, the Baltimore
Sun yesterday reported the story of how two dog-catchers were
cursed, threatened and chased away by a mob of Moscow construction workers
who came to the defense of four stray dogs.
According to Viktor Kuznetsov, deputy
construction manager at the Bolshoi Theater site where the incident
occurred, the dogs are unofficial mascots of the thousand-member
construction crew. The workers allow them free reign of the
renovated buildings and regularly feed them chicken soup with noodles.
And when the need arises, the crew is
quite ready to defend the Muscovite mutts from intruders—even
those sent by the city government.
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Furry and fashionable, a Chocolate Lab shows off the latest in canine winter wear outside
Moscow. Under a modern government policy, dogs are now safe to roam
the streets in the Russian capital ...as long as they can manage to keep
warm.
(Photo: Viktor Korotayev / Reuters)
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But what the workers didn't realize was
that the hated catch-and-kill tradition of dog-catchers in the Russian
capital has recently been overturned in favor of a bold and progressive
sterilize-and-release program. So the two dog catchers were actually
telling the truth when they insisted that they were merely going to spay/neuter
the dogs, vaccinate them, tattoo them with a serial number and release
them back on the steps of the Bolshoi Theater where they had been found.
But a decade-long reputation of
ruthlessness and cunning is tough for dogcatchers to outgrow. As Mr.
Kuznetsov explained, "Why should we trust them?"
Indeed, the new animal control policy has
only been in effect for several months. And The Sun reports
that there is still some fierce resistance from business interests and a
minority of dog-haters in Moscow.
Still, the change—brought
forth only through the stubborn efforts of dog-lovers, biologists and
animal welfare advocates—has been hailed as a monumental advance for
dogs worldwide.
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Moscow now joins the ranks of
metropolitan cities like Bombay,
Pune,
New Delhi and, most recently, Bangkok
in its no-kill initiative. Some U.S. cities such as San
Francisco are gradually shifting from traditional citywide animal
control to private, no-kill shelters in efforts to curb euthanasia rates;
however, such situations are only successful when the responsibility can
be borne by private organizations.
On the opposite extreme, there are many cities which practice the
extermination of all strays, often brutally. But if such an
impressive turn of events can happen in Moscow, a city where stray dogs
were once being shot dead in the streets, who knows what the future may
hold?
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