Kazakhstan has made amendments to the legislation and tightened responsibility for shooting of and cruelty to animals. However, animal rights defenders believe that they will not have a major impact on the issue without the systemic approach.
On March 2, 2022, Kazakhstan banned shooting of stray animals, which was annually funded for over a billion tenge (nearly 2.3 million dollars). Now officials will be fined at the rate of 20 monthly calculation indices (nearly 139 dollars) for the death of an animal trapped, and if such trapping leads to death of a few animals, the punishment will be up to one year in prison. Responsibility for cruelty to animals was also tightened.
The amendments caused dubious public response – in the western city of Atyrau, for example, several protests “for” and “against” the shooting of stray animals were held one after another. Amid these events, the protest in support of animals was held in Almaty on May 30. Animal rights defenders, on the one hand, emphasise that such amendments are largely minor and inefficient. However, the situation on the streets of Kazakhstan can be changed by the sterilisation programme, according to animal rights defenders.
“Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return”
According to some data, until 2022, Kazakhstan annually killed nearly 350 thousand stray dogs. The exact number of stray animals is unknown as no one in Kazakhstan has ever monitored such information unlike Georgia, which, for example, creates now the single database of stray animals.
Meanwhile, the problem has claimed attention for many years. On the one hand, according to the 2018 data, voiced by one of the MPs, 160 persons become victims to attacks by stray dogs every day.
One of the latest high-profile cases is the death of a 12-year-old boy in Aktobe, who was found at the construction site with the traces of dogs’ bites. He presumably was attacked by a pack of dogs. Despite the unclear circumstances, the law enforcement bodies are investigating how the child happened to be in the restricted area. Then some messages appeared that residents of Aktobe began to poison stray dogs and cats with rat poison.
On the other hand, every day dozens of animals, including many stray ones, are exposed to cruelty and inhumane trapping in Kazakhstan.
One of the most notorious cases happened to a dog in Atyrau. A video appeared on the internet, where a man was strangling the dog with his hands, and then pressed its neck by the fridge door, and then stood with his feet on it. The video outraged the public and drew attention of the police. The man was detained, and later he made a video message where he apologised and said that “the dog attacked his daughter.” However, the animal rights defenders did not believe his words and said that “the dog was not attacking anyone and cannot even defend itself.” The video was spread so widely that the dog was taken to the United States to its new owner. Now its name is Lucky.
A recently adopted law has tightened the criminal and administrative liability for cruelty to animals. Now cruelty to animals leading to its severe injury can be find up to 120 monthly calculation indices (MCI) (836 dollars in 2022), or correctional labour, or community service for up to 120 hours, or arrest for up to 30 days.
However, not all animal rights defenders have welcomed the amendments. INUCOBO, Animal Protection Association in Kazakhstan, has criticised them by saying that first it should be proven that cruelty was intentional, according to the law, which is not always possible.
“Now the definition of cruelty contains intent. What does it mean? It means that every animal abuser will argue now that they caused harm to the animal unintentionally, for example, they starved the animal, but did not wish its death. Many people tell us, ‘At least, we have this law, it has many positive things, too.’ But we wanted to have a law that would protect animals, the law that could punish animal abusers and stop the suffering of animals during harsh trapping. We wanted to legalise shelters and determine the category of lands for shelters. We wanted to get state support for private shelters. Nothing of these is in the law,” according to Inucobo.
As to the trapping, the new amendments in this regard have not made much difference, according to animal rights defenders. Media outlets still cover stories of animal killing, and workers refer to the note that the animal “may be killed” if it poses a danger.
Thus, for example, in February 2022, volunteers of “Dvoryanin” Public Foundation found bodies of 35 dogs in the village of Borodulikhina, East Kazakhstan region. They claimed that there were pet and pedigree animals among them. After the amendments, the animal trapping service shot a dog and said “it was aggressive.” According to eyewitnesses who spoke to the media, “the dog was a cat’s size, and it didn’t attack anyone.”
Lilia Sarsenova, head of Inucobo, Animal Protection Association, said that the law “On responsible ownership of animals” that became effective in March does not work as it should in opinion of the animal protection association of Kazakhstan, and the actions of trapping services go against animals.
“It has been announced that healthy and social animals will be released. But the law has a rather vague wording: ‘when the animal threatens or poses a danger to public order’ [it may be killed]. However, what it means is unclear as there are no criteria given,” Sarsenova said.
Animal rights defenders agree that it is necessary to regulate the number of animals, but they emphasise that it should be done humanely via the “Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return” system, or CNVR.
“There is a law in Kazakhstan now that the shooting has been cancelled. I don’t want to tell bad things about our state, our government, but the law has been adopted without any preparatory measures. They failed to adopt the law on CNVR. They failed to build temporary shelters, as they wanted to do. They cancelled trapping. This is wrong. Therefore, unfortunately Kazakhstan continues to shoot stray animals, in particular, in our city,” said Anastasia Glyadintseva, one of the founders of the foundation “Chetyre Lapy Plus” in Semei.
Meanwhile, Lilia Sarsenova emphasised that animal trapping is still performed, and then animals most probably are killed. According to her, the standard rules of trapping, which were adopted just recently, “there is not a word about releasing them after sterilisation or vaccination.”
“I am beginning to think that some executive bodies hinder the whole process and even resist it. They have been given large discretion. According to the draft law, local executive bodies are free to do anything in their discretion after trapping,” Sarsenova said. “I think that they are biased towards the budget. They have a trapping plan for one year ahead. They receive money from the budget for every animal caught.”
According to the Animal Protection Association in Kazakhstan, Inucobo, the government does not adopt the CNVR programme because of “lack of infrastructure and finances.”
“Yesterday, the Mazhilis (lower house of the parliament of Kazakhstan) session with the presence of veterinary services said that sterilisation is impossible because of no infrastructure and finances. But I want to remind that sterilisation of stray animals in Kazakhstan is mandatory since 2015, according to the Animal Care Rules dated December 30, 2014, and since then no infrastructure has been created,” according to Inucobo’s statement in April.
“The CNVR programme is a top priority that will make life in the city easier. Once people see a collared and chipped dog, they will know it is not aggressive, it has been checked by psychologists, and it was found normal, it has undergone additional adaptation. Additional professions, specialists that will be involved in this should appear. In five years, if we engage in this matter, the situation will change very much,” Vladimir Teplyakov, director of Senim-Meirim Foundation, said.
Last frontier
One of the most important elements of the animal protection system is shelters. They exist due to volunteers and donations. Their expenses are very high, with no commercial benefit. A lot of shelters open quickly and then close quickly because they cannot stand the hardships that are encountered by any animal shelter in Kazakhstan. But many of them continue to work for years.
One of such foundations was opened 8 years ago by Almaty-based animal rights defender Vladimir Teplyakov. Five years ago the shelter was opened in the foundation, which now has nearly 150 dogs and 30 cats. He knows names of each of them.
“We have Taimas, who’s 15 years old already. My son found it when he attended elementary school. It was a palm-sized puppy. It had peeled paws and belly. We fostered it, cats took care of it, and now he’s with us,” Teplyakov said. “We often find tortured puppies and kittens. Kids can stone them to death because they want to learn what happens when an animal dies. I have seen many cases, unfortunately, of dogs, puppies, who were skinned alive. Thanks God, we fostered them, but they don’t trust people.”
Vladimir Teplyakov is most worried about cruelty to animals when it comes to the amendment of legislation.
“Unfortunately, I very often see how animals are abused. People are not held liable for it, even administratively. Let’s take Lucky, for example, who was strangled by the fridge door. The person who did it didn’t even pay a fine, he just apologised, and that’s it. Our authorities do not want to deal with it. Our set of mind is that we consider an animal a thing. People need to understand that animals are part of our society,” the expert said.
State support is much needed by shelters, according to Vladimir Teplyakov. In addition to big recurrent costs – the foundation has recently raised money on its Instagram account for the minimum salary to the employee – infrastructure is needed. They need big and safe kennels and solar panels because such energy costs less than installing a transmission line. But the amount is impracticable for the foundation.
Commercial organisations that have enough money for charity could help shelters, which sometimes can hardly afford some food for animals, but tax legislation prevents them from doing so.
“Organisations that could help are not interested in it because we don’t have the article on charity. In fact, it does exist, but when people count their costs and say, ‘Guys, if we start helping you, we must pay taxes for it, for charity.’ A separate tax on charity, does it make sense?” the animal rights defender said.
Private shelters, as can be seen from numerous requests for temporary holding of animals, are overcrowded, and state shelters do not exist in the country.
According to Teplyakov, a large complex for 500 animals was built in Nur-Sultan in 2019. After all, some people thought that stray dogs do not need such shelter, and left only pedigree dogs there. Thus, it became their business.
The situation may get worse for those who protects animals and who fears them without the sterilisation programme, support of private shelters, improvement of the law on cruelty to animals, and many other amendments, including qualification of a category of land for animal shelters.
Meanwhile, the confrontation of people interested in animal killing with those who are interested in their protection continues.
The former are guided by slogans “no to child killing” and the words that it is a “self-defence”, and the latter take to the streets with posters “protect me from animal abusers,” “powerlessness of animals is a shame on Kazakhstan.”
A group of people standing for animal killing is guided by the statistics of people attacked by stray animals. According to a member of parliament, 160 attacks happen every day.
“It is quite impossible today to walk between private residences quietly as you surely see a pack of dogs! My son is the grade one pupil. After school, he has evening judo classes next to the school building. And every time he has to avoid stray dogs. In a couple of years, he will be going to school alone,” said Aliya Kaiyrgeldy, resident of Karaganda. “Moreover, soft-hearted residents usually feed stray animals. I can understand them as I also love animals. But they leave food next to playgrounds, on heating pipes, which are mounted along the path leading to the school, which can be dangerous primarily for children.”
But Lilia Sarsenova of the “Inucobo” Animal Protection Association has the opinion that is supported by veterinarians, according to her.
“If a unvaccinated pet dog or cat bites a person, he/she should seek medical help at the injury care centre, according to the treatment procedure. They tell him/her to bring the dog. The dog will be monitored for 10 days in the temporary housing facility. But owners don’t want to follow this rule as they have to pay a fine for not having their dog or cat vaccinated. So, they just write that a stray dog bit them. This is how the statistics of bites appears,” Sarsenova said.
So far, the authorities have not reacted to the fact that the law adopted does not work as it has to, according to animal rights defenders. The animal database is known to be prepared. Thus, stray dogs once caught will be chipped, but now pet owners must register their pets.