Penza, 10 April 2013. PenzaNews. Promises of the representatives of Penza public organizations to provide assistance to the municipality in maintaining stray animals turned out to be mere words. This opinion was expressed by the head of Penza Yuri Alpatov at a meeting of the standing committee on public safety, civil rights protection, civil defense and emergency situations, fire prevention, held on Wednesday, April 10.

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“Last year, several round tables and meetings were devoted to the problem of stray animals. Almost at all of them, human rights activists claimed that they would take care of stray animals. In the end all the promises turned out to be bravado, while now only the municipal organizations do all the work on capturing and maintaining stray cats and dogs in the city,” Yuri Alpatov said.

He stressed that, in his opinion, the interests of the residents of Penza and human rights activists are very different.
“From the beginning of the year, six cases of rabies have already been registered. We must take all necessary measures to create safe environment for people. I propose to study the bill on domestic animals in the Penza region in detail again, and make necessary adjustments. In my opinion, the present version is too mild, and it will not change the situation,” the head of the city pointed out.

Yuri Alpatov added that when developing strategies of stray animals’ population control, their capturing and maintaining, we should focus on the experience of civilized countries.

“There, the animals are kept for three days in the center. If during this time the owner does not come, the animals are euthanized. Otherwise, the owner is to compensate expenses for their pet’s capture and maintaining,” he concluded.