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Problem of Street Dogs in Tbilisi

April 26, 2013

Salome Chkheidze

Irma Mamasakhlisi has been bothered with pack of street dogs in her yard for many years already. She said one of their neighbors systematically feed street dogs and attracts more and more eventually. The woman has arranged lairs for dogs both in the yard and entrance; puts food for them straight in the entrance and people cannot safely enter their flats. The main problem about those dogs is that they are not vaccinated.

“Although we petitioned to relevant agencies several times, representatives of Emergency Service Units came here but could not take dogs because the neighbor resisted them; in accordance to the law, if at least one person is against taking the dogs to special asylum, service personnel could not take them… I do not know what the law is about… I asked them to show me it, but they said it does not exist in written form,” Irma Mamasakhlisi said.

Majority of residents of Vazha Pshavela Avenue is bothered with the problem. They even collected signatures and petitioned to the Emergency and Urgent Situation Service at Tbilisi City Hall to resolve the problem but as local residents say nobody has responded to their petition yet.

“Dogs create serious problems for us; we are afraid to let children out to play in the yard. I am also very afraid of dogs. The dogs are moving about in packs and it is very dangerous. When ten dogs start barking together, I cannot sleep child,” Tsitsino Shautidze said.

Mzia Kraveishvili, who allegedly takes care and feeds street dogs, does not agree with the complaints of her neighbors. She said in fact the population has problem and panic about dogs. Kraveishvili said street dogs do not live in their yard at all and she does not feed them either.

“Rescue team arrived here several times but they could not find any dog here; they could not catch them. A dog runs across our yard once a month and people immediately start calling the emergency service; the rescue team comes here but they cannot find dogs,” Mzia Kraveishvili said.

Since 2012, Emergency and Urgent Situation Service has been in charge of control of domestic and wild animals. Head of the service Temur Pkhaladze said they have information about the problem but they could not take the street dogs from the yard due to technical reasons.

“There are cases when we cannot catch dogs; they have their own instincts and when dogs detect the rescue team, they immediately run away and we cannot catch them. Animals also have their rights like people have and there are their defenders too. If the animal creates any threat to the population, of course we take and isolate them. But there are cases when the animal is not aggressive, has owner, is healthy and there is a person or group of people, who takes their care, and they are vaccinated too. In this case, we always discuss the issue on the place to decide what better solution for both animals and population is,” Pkhaladze said.

Temur Pkhaladze said if there are dogs in the territory, it would be nice to sterilize and vaccinate them and then send them back to their care-taker because otherwise other dogs will replace them in the same territory whose aggressiveness and health problems will also be questionable.

Later, the residents of the same residential building informed us that representatives of the Emergency Service arrived in the yard and took three dogs. Pkhaladze said they could catch dogs with the help of sedatives and dogs are placed in municipal shelter now.

“We carry out lab analysis for the dogs in the asylum; then we start their treatment but if it is impossible to cure them, we make them sleep… if the dog is health, he is moved to open-air cage for further sterilization that stops their fertilization. After all these procedures, the dog is sent back to the habitat,” Temur Pkhaladze said.

Part of society believes dogs are in horrible situation in asylum. We visited the municipal asylum of dogs to check the information. About 140 dogs live there. Every dog is initially tested at the lab and as lab assistants explained to us they feed dogs twice a day. The cages are cleaned in the morning and in the evening and dogs are taken for a walk several times a day. Veterinaries permanently work in the asylum, who observe the dogs. Besides that, several days ago they installed video-cameras to control both inside and outside territories of the asylum.

Chairman of Georgian Animal Protection and Safety Society Temur Tsikoridze also spoke about the activities of the municipal service. He said there is not good quarantine zone, room for puppies and post-surgery space in the asylum. According to Tsikoridze, his and several other nongovernmental organizations cooperate with the municipal asylum and some improvements were already observed there.

“First of all the legislation shall necessarily be amended with regard to the animal protection issues; in parallel to it, educational programs shall be created for children at schools and the state shall allocate funds for the resolution of the problem of street dogs and their control; asylums shall be constructed… then the problem will be eventually resolved,” Tsikoridze said.

He added that Georgia is one of the most backward countries in the world in the field of protection of animals’ rights; the main reason is that society lacks mentality to humanly treat animals.

“If public awareness is raised, people will no longer kick their dogs out of homes; just the opposite, they will pick up and adopt street dogs. When similar balance is created, the problem will be resolved in several years. Otherwise, the problem will remain unresolved even if dogs are sterilized and killed. Animals treat us the same way as we treat them; if we love them, they will also love us,” Tsikoridze said.

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