MAER supported the holding of a Forum for Humane treatment of animals

A Forum for Humane Treatment of animals was held in Moscow, where experts, officials and animal rights activists gathered to discuss how to make the lives of homeless cats and dogs better. The Agency for Strategic Initiatives and the Giving Hope Foundation organized the meeting.

ASI Director General Svetlana Chupsheva recalled that Russia has a law that requires humane treatment of stray animals. According to this law, they must be captured, sterilized, vaccinated, and either returned to the street or placed in families. Extreme measures are only used when an animal is in pain, suffering, and it is impossible to help it.

"Despite this framework and what is enshrined in the federal law and the Constitution of the Russian Federation, in some regions they took advantage of the expansion of their powers and went the other way. Instead of dealing with the safety of our citizens, protection and humane mechanisms for resolving the issue of stray animals, decisions are being taken on extreme measures. Although today there are a huge number of promising practices, the best solutions that clearly comply with the norms of the Constitution, federal law and simply human humane attitude. And the regions have all the tools for this," Svetlana Chupsheva noted.

Svetlana Chupsheva noted the regions where it was possible to build systematic work in the field of humane treatment of animals and the development of a friendly urban environment for families with pets. Among the leaders are Moscow, the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Vologda, Pskov, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and Ivanovo regions.

The MAER media holding launched a federal information campaign about the Forum for Humane Treatment of Animals.

"Probably, many people have a question: why would a large media holding talk about homeless animals on screens in the center of a megacity? In the traffic? Among the advertisements for banks, real estate, restaurants, and delivery services? But that's the point of our work. Today, people live in conditions of tremendous competition for attention. And if an important topic does not come into view, it does not seem to exist for society. And we are helping the voices of animal rights activists to sound louder and make their initiatives more visible," said Konstantin Mayor, owner and CEO of the MAER media holding, during the meeting.

He added that the media should be responsible for making this topic visible and changing the information field, changing people's attitudes towards stray animals.