Human Savagery Mirrored in Houndishness

08 Jul 08

In Moscow, the relation between two-leggeds and four-leggeds has descended to extreme lows. Just as humans disregard the special bonds between human and hound by over-breeding and discarding unwanted puppies into the street, so too are Russian dogs turning against their former masters and companions.

Street dogs are increasingly feared, and incidents of dog attacks are steadily increasing. In one incident, a 51 year old man was mauled to death by a pack of feral dogs as he walked home from work through a park in northeast Moscow.

A pregnant woman was recently savaged outside her flat on a crowded street. Lydmilla Kubishkina miscarried her baby and suffered extensive injuries.

The fear of being bitten is now a major concern for many Muscovites. Dogs in Moscow frequently attack people. They get in packs and they can literally rip people apart.

The sheer number of people being bitten is frightening: “During the past year, half a million people were bitten by dogs in Russia and of them about 50,000 in Moscow,” Mr Nikonov said.

In 2002, a policy of shooting homeless dogs was replaced with one of sterilisation. Dog police now patrol the city armed with anaesthetic darts and remove the most vicious animals. Moscow’s dog pounds are overflowing with wild dogs, but the director of one shelter, Sergei Serdyuk, believes the situation is not improving.

“You can’t solve the problem simply by sterilising dogs or taking them off the street as long as you have people breeding them without limits,” he said. “Breeders and their buyers simply throw out unwanted puppies onto the street.”

Awoof! Makes me sad for my Russian houndish cousins - even if they are, truly, very very very distant cousins (of a fashion). And makes me equally angry at the hapless humans, who fail to do the right thing by these dogs, which is to provide sterilisaiton and good homes for dogs…

AwwwooooF! Archie