Photo: Yuri Kochetkov / EPA-EFE
Russia’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the killing of stray animals should only be used as “an exceptional measure” and applied solely when strays pose a direct threat to humans, state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.
The ruling followed an appeal by activists from the Siberian republic of Buryatia who petitioned the court to deem an initiative in the region to euthanise stray dogs who could not be found new homes within a month unconstitutional.
The Constitutional Court, which is empowered to determine whether new laws and court rulings comply with the Russian Constitution, said in its ruling that killing stray animals could only be justified if the animals showed “unmotivated aggression” towards humans or were likely to spread disease.
Last July Vladimir Putin signed a law that devolved powers to regional governments to establish their own rules on how stray animals should be treated, including how measures such as euthanasia could be used.
The new law prompted a number of Russian regions, including Buryatia, Magadan and Orenburg, to tackle their stray dog problems by ordering culls of the animals instead of sterilising, vaccinating, and releasing them, despite strong pushback from animal rights activists.
In January, at least 18 dogs who were undergoing medical treatment at a local shelter were forcibly euthanised by the authorities in Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, despite animal shelter staff saying the dogs were likely to recover. Following the incident, animal rights activists in Buryatia began evacuating the region’s stray dogs to shelters elsewhere in Russia.
Regional courts in Magadan and Orenburg have already taken steps to ensure they are not in breach of the Constitutional Court ruling, and have withdrawn their recent rulings allowing for the culling of stray animals.
