LONDON: Russia and Ukraine are using mobile crematoriums to kill homeless animals, mainly dogs. It has sparked outrage across the two countries and the world's animal rights activists, who say the practice is counter to any “true humanity.” Leah Thomas, a Canadian activist living in London, told Bikya Masr that “Russia and Ukraine should be ashamed of what they are doing. This is a sign of almost evil in the minds of government authorities who are carrying out this destructive practice.” Ditiline is forbidden in Ukraine, but the drug is widely used. Ukrainian animal rights activists said they are no longer seeking understanding and support from the government and announced they are ready to take extreme measures, threatening to disrupt the Euro 2012 football championship in the country if action to stop these crimes are not taken. Russian animal rights activists wage their own war for homeless four-legged creatures. On February 2, 500 people filed a written protest against the return of useless and barbaric extermination of homeless animals. Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow's former mayor, stated in May of 2008 that he was supporting humane policies towards the regulation of the number of homeless animals. However, reality proved that the verbal statement entailed no action: animals would be captured in the streets and sent to unfinished shelters, where they would die because of poor housing conditions. The same year, Luzhkov's deputy Pavel Biryukov offered to replace the program of sterilization of homeless animals to their extermination in municipal shelters. The black list included quarantined and sterilized dogs. Animal rights activists said that such a change in the law would only legalize animal slaughter. In Russia, homeless dogs are also destroyed with curare-like drugs such as ditiline and its derivatives. Curare-like paralyzing poisons are banned in the whole civilized world, and their use is categorized as brutal animal abuse. Many in Russia believe that a large number of homeless animals is a result of uncontrollable breeding of purebred dogs and cats and the absence of propaganda to sterilize homeless pets. In addition, taking homeless pets from dog pounds is not considered a traditional practice in Russia. There is direct connection between the cultural and moral level of the society and the attention that it pays to issues of protection of animals. The culture of eating dog meat has been prospering in Moscow lately. A journalistic investigation conducted by one of Russian TV channels revealed a whole chain of restaurants serving dog meat in the south-west of Moscow. BM
