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In near future, Tallinn Animal Shelter will undergo an additional inspection by Veterinary and Food Board, as assured by its Harju County veterinary centre head Vladimir Vahesaar. «They have an abnormally high rate of cats killed,» stated Mr Vahesaar.
As announced, on Wednesday, by ETV’s Pealtnägija (eyewitness), over two thirds of cats taken to the shelter, financed by Tallinn, either die or are killed. Last year, 2,222 cats were taken to the shelter, of whom a whopping 80 per cent i.e. 1,790 lost their lives either by emergency slaughter or disease.
According to Tallinn environment office data, last year 449 cats caught in Tallinn alone were killed before expiry of the mandatory keeping time of 14 days. Last year, 862 kittens under a month old were caught, the shelter killing 500 of them.
According to Mr Vahesaar, all these decisions are signed by the director of the shelter Larissa Kozõreva, educated as veterinarian. «There may be various reasons why the number is so high – animals long in the streets are found, not vital, ones not possible to revive,» thinks Mr Vahesaar. «Even so, the number is abnormally high, so we developed doubts and, in a few days, there will be inspection,» he promised.
According to documents, said Mr Vahesaar, animal protection acts have not been violated. «All is legally correct,» said Mr Vahesaar.
Of possible violations needed to be inspected, at Tallinn Animal Shelter, a joint address was signed last week by animal protection society and by ASBLs MTÜ Kasside Turvakodu, Pesaleidja Tallinna Kassituba, MTÜ Kassiabi, MTÜ Kelmiküla Kassijaam and MTÜ Kass ja Pojad. The address was issued to city government, environmental agency, Harju County Veterinary Centre and Harju County Government.
According to signatories, an overly large amount of cats fall ill while at the shelter and animals, especially cats, are killed before their owners or perspective new owners are able to reach them.
According to Mr Vahesaar, he has had to solve disputes between animals’ owners and the shelter, the former complaining of being unable to retrieve their animal from the said institution. According to Ms Kozõreva, there have been two such cases; however, in either case there were doubts that the animals had been mistreated, hence the refusal to return them to owners.
Animal rights activists say that, at the shelter, a large number of animals are being kept in stressful and disease inducing conditions, without veterinary help.
According to director of shelter, Larissa Kozõreva, all killing decisions are justified. She said she did not want to comment any more, having covered the topic sufficiently. «People need to look in the mirror and ask why are so many cats in the streets. Before me, the euthanasia percentage was even higher,» said Ms Kozõreva.
Mr Vahesaar agrees that, earlier, even greater numbers of cats have been killed, the numbers of stray animals caught being larger (Ms Kozõreva claiming otherwise). «Should euthanasia be performed on half the cats, every other stray animal would be saved to life,» said Mr Vahesaar.
«Presumably, the mistakes and problems at the shelter are due to the load just being too much for them,» thinks animal protection society media manager Annika Lepp.
As explained by Tallinn environmental agency senior specialist Triinu Maandi, the Tallinn Animal Shelter services 31 nearby communes and cities – in addition to Tallinn.
«The city has a contract with the shelter, prescribing that Tallinn animals are entered into a database and should an animal undergo euthanasia at an earlier date, a notation will be made. The city pays for the keeping of an animal at the shelter to the exact duration of it being there. We are not paying for catching them,» explained Ms Maandi.
Comment
Arvo Sarapuu, Tallinn deputy mayor
The situation shown in Pealtnägija regarding mass killing of cats at Tallinn Animal Shelter, while refusing to hand them over to animal lovers, is not acceptable.
In the light of it all we will obviously need to start designing a municipal shelter. We will try and find funds for that in next year’s budget.
The city needs to guarantee such services via public procurement. We organised the procurement, the ABSL currently at the helm was the sole tenderer. Now it is time to start designing a shelter of our own as a city. And to organise a new procurement. Looks like many are interested. We’d like to have competition.
The situation shown at Pealtnägija, where an animal loving private person was refused a cat from the shelter, the same cat killed after a week, is in no wise acceptable.
We will send a team of inspectors and check the claim that the shelter is not fulfilling the obligation of keeping the animals alive for 14 days. Should it be proven that the winner of the procurement is unable to meet the requirements, the procurement needs to be declared void, and a new one organised. With protection of animals, there can be no compromises.
We will check if the animals are being kept alive for 14 days, how they are being treated, how the staff communicates with people. Secondly, we will start designing a shelter of our own; and, in case things are not settled meanwhile, we will annul the procurement and do a new one.