The Chairman of the Investigative Committee has received citizens in the city of Saint Petersburg. Most of the complaints have to do with procedural decisions over criminal cases under investigation in the Saint Petersburg Directorate and Leningrad Region Office of the Investigative Committee. The citizens told Mr. Bastrykin about medical errors and crimes committed against children, protection of whose rights is one of priorities of the agency. This time one of women had an unusual request for the Chairman – to work out legal regulations in the constituent territory for keeping and walking pets which would provide criminal liability for attacking people.
On 2 November 2016, a 7-year-old girl was delivered in a hospital in Saint Petersburg with bites to her ear, front and sides of thighs. It turned out that not long before that, a local woman and her daughter had been attacked by a pack of dogs in the yard on one of the busiest streets of the city, Kultury Avenue. When they were approaching the house they heard barking and then at least 10 dogs ran out the open door and attacked the child. The tragedy was avoided only because the 7-month-pregnant woman covered her daughter and because passersby drove off the animals.
Investigators found out that the dogs belonged to two women who kept in insanitation in their flat 63 dogs and sold “pure-bred” puppies resembling husky dogs. But in fact they had no breeding documents needed to convince potential buyers that the pets are mentally stable. The dogs had ran outside because the so-called breeders did not provide proper care after them and regularly let them walk outside unattended unleashed and unmuzzled. Their neighbors who feared for their lives each day had complained several times to the district police officer, however preventive talks with the two women had had not effect on them.
Unfortunately, current legislation does not classifies the actions of god breeders with strictness necessary to make them understand that you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. Despite all the discussions held at different levels after another tragic event, they still remain in words only, while there are no laws ensuring safety of people and animals. Mr. Bastrykin ordered the Saint Petersburg Directorate of the Investigative Committee to initiate before the city’s Legislative Assembly the adoption of “Temporary rules of keeping dogs and cats” regulating the conditions pets are kept in, maintenance of sanitary and hygienic status of places they are kept in and adjusting area; adoption of measures ensuring safety of people and animals around and ensuring silence in housing.
By now the two women have been charged with hooliganism under Part 1, item “a” of Article 213 of the RF Penal Code. Following the results of two psychiatric evaluations, one of them has been ruled to be examined in a mental hospital, while the second one has no mental disorders. All 63 dogs have been caught, chipped and put in a veterinarian center.
At the end of the reception Mr. Bastrykin gave explicit orders to senior officials of the Saint Petersburg Directorate of the Investigative Committee. The Chairman assumed personal control over the review of all complaints.
Acting head of Media Relations S.L. Petrenko
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