A Pack Charged at Schoolchildren: In Mykolaiv Oblast, Residents Are Being Asked to Catch the Dogs Themselves

A pack of 6–7 large stray dogs charged toward children near Gymnasium No. 5 in the Fregat neighborhood of Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast. Parents and representatives of the school then appealed to the city authorities to resolve the problem.

The response from the Executive Committee of the Pervomaisk City Council is dated October 21. It explained that the city has no contractor to catch stray animals.

The city budget also currently has no funds to build and maintain an animal shelter that would meet legal requirements.

Instead, the number of stray dogs in the city is controlled through sterilization. To this end, the Department of Housing and Communal Services enters into an annual contract with a sole proprietor who provides veterinary services.

Since there is no contractor, residents who feed the dogs and have access to them are expected to transport them to the veterinary clinic themselves. In effect, the city authorities are asking these residents to catch the stray dogs themselves and bring them in for sterilization.

We previously reported:

• Aggressive dog and shooting on Korabelna Street: 9-year-old boy rescued
• A child was nearly bitten by dogs near a school: his mother pleads with the authorities to intervene, but no one listens
• Mykolaiv reports a significant decline in the number of stray dogs in the city
• “Dire straits”: official says Mykolaiv municipal enterprise “has no capacity to catch stray dogs”
• A pensioner from the Korabelnyi district was told to travel across the city to file a request to have stray dogs caught