Earlier, you announced a bill that should improve the situation for medicines for animals. At what stage is your development now?
Vladimir Burmatov: The bill has already passed the first reading. He is currently on the health committee. We expect you to approve the second and third in the spring session and there will be no delays.
We have a very big problem with the increase in the price of veterinary medicines and their scarcity. It comes to the fact that in veterinary clinics there is not enough anesthesia. Expanding the list of veterinary drugs by including medical drugs under a simplified procedure will help to expand the list of these drugs and reduce their cost by increasing competition. Now in Russia there are only 2 thousand items of medicines for animals. There are more than 20,000 human preparations, that is, 10 times more.
All over the world there are treatment protocols: if you have exhausted veterinary drugs, but the goal is not achieved, then you can use “human” ones, because animal diseases are exactly the same. But we do not allow this practice.
You talked about the introduction of animal registration, is there a timetable for the introduction of such a procedure?
Vladimir Burmatov: This is a very sensitive issue. My position remains the same. First of all, you need to register. Second, it should be free for citizens. Thirdly, the marking must be variable, that is, at the discretion of the citizen: a mark, a tattoo, a chip, a label. Fourthly, it is necessary to register not only domestic animals, but also abandoned animals. We need a general end-to-end registry to be able to see the entire population. Fifthly, there must be a base, integrating all available bases of cynological federations, special services and departments, as well as regional bases. This is necessary so that the animals do not have to re-register, because this is often impossible: a microchipped dog is not microchipped a second time. The chip is implanted once.
Initially, registration should be voluntary. Right now, it is simply impossible to register 60 million animals in the hands of citizens, and we have more than 20 million dogs and more than 40 million cats. Voluntary at first will make it possible to form an infrastructure, debug all processes, not create a stir and, most importantly, not introduce fines or other punitive measures. They are simply not necessary.
The easiest way to move from voluntary registration to universal registration is to start making the same requirements for air and rail transport of animals within the country that are now valid for transport abroad.
That is, there is no registration yet, but in 2023 the State Duma will already consider changes to the Administrative Code, which, among other things, relate to fines for abandoned animals and incitement. How to find the culprits?
Vladimir Burmatov: The bill has already been approved in the first reading, we are waiting for its approval in the second and third. There are many new administrative structures there, and this does not contradict the fact that there is no record yet. The evidence base is already being compiled. For example, fines for discarded animals. They constantly send me videos demanding that I be punished – the culprit was caught on camera. He tied a dog to the door of the veterinary clinic in minus 20 degrees and left. In the video you can see the face of a person, he is identified, there is a crime, but today there is no sanction for that.
Or they send us a video from the DVR: the car stops on the curb and a swarming package is thrown out – a litter of kittens or puppies. The car numbers are visible, but there is no penalty. For such actions, there will be fines of up to 30 thousand rubles.
There are, for example, rules related to biting – fines for inciting if your dog has hurt someone. Of course, it will work more efficiently if there is a record and you can clearly identify who exactly this dog was.
