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Our dog business: in the Russian Federation they want to create a unified register of breeders
In Russia, they want to create a unified register of breeders who breed animals for sale. The bill was developed by a working group of State Duma deputies and sent to the government for review (Izvestia has the text of the document). The aim of the initiative is to fully legalize the activities of breeders and reduce the number of aggressive stray animals. Animal rights activists called it useful, but noted that in practice there may be problems. How does the deputies' bill differ from a similar initiative of the Ministry of Natural Resources and what else is needed to make packs of stray dogs disappear from the streets of the country? — in the Izvestia article.
Why do we need a unified register of breeders?
In Russia, they want to create a unified register of breeders who breed animals for sale. The bill was developed by a working group of State Duma deputies on the treatment of stray animals, and it has been sent to the government. According to the explanatory note, today in Russia, based on the register of small and medium-sized businesses, almost 4 thousand legal entities and entrepreneurs are officially engaged in pet breeding.
However, this number does not include those who work illegally, breeding and selling animals illegally without any documents, Deputy Alexander Spiridonov (United Russia), one of the authors of the bill and a member of the working group, told Izvestia.
— Now we don't know how many breeders we have in general. We have those who work hard and follow all the rules of breeding. And there are those who just bought a couple of dogs and breeds them somewhere at home, without following any rules. First of all, we want to understand how many there are, we want them to comply with the breeding rules, and we want to create a unified register based on our largest breeding organizations," he said.
Today, some non-profit organizations, such as the Russian Cynological Federation (RCF), have registers of breeders. The new initiative provides for the creation of a unified register with information about breeders and its online posting on the official website of a single non-profit organization (the name is not specified, it will be approved by the government), the text of the bill says.
According to Alexander Spiridonov, "black organizations" often throw animals out into the street with impunity if for some reason they are not satisfied with them. As a result, the number of stray dogs is increasing. Secondly, sometimes a puppy born has an innate aggression towards a person. According to the rules, such a dog should not give offspring in order to stop the spread of aggressive genes. However, illegal breeders do not comply with this requirement, as they strive to sell as many puppies as possible. This leads to the growth of aggressive animals.
The working group on the treatment of stray animals includes representatives of four factions of the State Duma (except for the "New People"), Nina Ostanina, the head of the group and a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia.
— As a rule, members of the working group sign the bill, and we have to convince the members of our faction to support it. But we usually have a consolidated position, I don't think there will be any misunderstanding here, because the situation in the regions is known to every deputy," she clarified.
The parliamentarians actively cooperated with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on all these issues, said Alexander Spiridonov. Despite the fact that the agency published its draft law on breeders at the end of June, the working group has prepared its own version of the initiative. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment informed Izvestia that their document had already been publicly discussed.
"In the future, it [the bill] will be finalized taking into account the proposals received, in addition, the initiatives of interested federal authorities will be considered, and discussions will also take place on the government's platform," the ministry said.
If the law is passed, it may enter into force on March 1, 2026. The text of the initiative of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment states that a union of breeders' associations will be created for each species. He will keep pedigree books, keep records of animals, issue pedigree certificates, train breeding specialists and certify them. "The Union will establish a breeding procedure for purebred animals based primarily on the principles of humanity," the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment added. However, the government initiative does not say whether it is planned to create a unified register of breeders. That is why the parliamentarians have put forward their own version.
— Unlike the government bill, we propose to introduce a registry that will be available to anyone who wants to get an animal, so that it can be determined that the breeder from whom people buy an animal is considered to be in good faith and that he adheres to the rules of breeding, — said Alexander Spiridonov.
One way or another, one bill will be adopted, the deputy explained. The working group is currently awaiting feedback on its initiative from the Cabinet of Ministers. If the response is positive, the parliamentarians will take into account all government comments and submit the bill to the State Duma. If it passes the first reading, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment may withdraw its version, and then the entire development will pass to the deputies. Or, on the contrary, the ministry may take into account the initiative of parliamentarians.
How the bill will work in practice
The introduction of the animal breeding control system proposed in the bill will eliminate the shadow market for the "breeding" of pets, the explanatory note says. However, such an initiative will not be able to be implemented unless mandatory registration of animals is introduced earlier.
A similar bill has already been prepared by a working group, and the idea of mandatory pet registration has also been added to the government's plan. Thus, the Parliament and the Cabinet of Ministers continue to work in parallel on this issue. If both initiatives of the deputies are approved, then in practice, when buying an animal from a breeder, a person will receive a pet passport, with which it will need to be registered.
— Any breeder will have to issue this passport. If he works full-time, then he simply cannot submit the documents so that the person can register him later. And if a person does not register an animal, they will be asked about it when contacting a veterinary clinic. After that, no one will go to such breeders," said Alexander Spiridonov.
Earlier, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin approved an action plan to implement the President's instructions on responsible animal management. One of the points of the plan talks about the introduction of mandatory accounting of pets. According to the document, this task must be completed between July 2025 and May 2026.
The Ministry of Finance is listed among the responsible departments in the plan. Izvestia asked there about the financing that would need to be allocated from the budget for the implementation of the idea of registering animals and creating an all-Russian union of breeders (we are talking about the draft law of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, which has already been submitted). The deputy's initiative on breeders says that the adoption of a federal law will not require the allocation of additional funds from the treasury.
Pet registration is an essential element of a comprehensive solution to the problem of stray animals, said Vladimir Rybalko, an animal rights activist, biologist and head of the First Petrozavodsk Animal Shelter, in a conversation with Izvestia. In Russia, all stray dogs turn out to be mostly former pets who got lost or ran away. Subsequently, they reproduce, forming packs of stray dogs. Therefore, mandatory registration will help to find, identify and return pets to the owner, reducing the number of orphan animals.
At the same time, such an initiative may face a number of problems when implemented in practice, Rybalko believes.
— It is not enough to enter and declare. It is necessary to establish a control system, and everything is difficult with this, given the employment of the police or local governments that could do this, or the state veterinary services. There are plenty of problems there, too," the biologist explained.
But the idea of legalization will be useful for preventing the appearance of stray animals. The animal rights activist gave an example from his practice. A man bought a husky without documents, but when it turned out that the husky was "non-working", he took it to the industrial zone and forgot about it. The locals began to feed her, after which she became pregnant. If the dog had not been sterilized in time, a new pack of stray dogs would have appeared.
Nevertheless, such preventive measures are only part of a large comprehensive approach that includes other mandatory elements, Rybalko believes. These include the fight against the so-called self-care of an animal, when it can run away from home, preferential sterilization, the already mentioned registration and a number of other methods. By applying these measures in Petrozavodsk, he and his colleagues reduced the number of stray dogs in the city by six times.
The expert expressed the hope that all the adopted laws should not remain on paper, so that the problem of stray dogs in Russia would be completely solved.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
