Dogs, death, and disorder In southern Russia, mass killings of stray canines spark outrage and highlight a growing crisis
The question of how to handle Russia’s growing stray dog population has become a source of heated debate. Lawmakers recently shelved a bill that would have allowed shelters to euthanize homeless animals, following widespread backlash across the country. But in parts of southern Russia, where fear of dog attacks is rising, some residents have begun taking matters into their own hands and killing stray dogs themselves. RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service, Kavkaz.Realii, took a closer look at how the issue is playing out across the region. Meduza shares an abridged English-language version of their reporting.
In April, reports of poisoned stray dogs became a major topic of concern in Krasnodar, a city in the south of Russia. Residents in one neighborhood shared photos on social media showing at least three dead animals, though police only mentioned one when announcing that they’d opened a preliminary investigation into animal cruelty.
Among the dead animals was a dog named Misha, whom locals described as “the face of the neighborhood” — a gentle stray who often accompanied children on their walk to school. Within days of his death, a makeshift memorial appeared at the site, where schoolchildren left stuffed animals, hand-drawn notes, and toys. According to the outlet 93.ru, Misha and the other dogs were poisoned with a tuberculosis medication. Locals pooled money to pay for the toxicology report.
A second investigation was opened after a dog with its throat slit was found in another Krasnodar neighborhood — about a week and a half after the poisonings. In both cases, officers conducted only cursory investigations, and there’s been no word from police about launching a criminal case in connection with either incident.
Locals, who’d reported the poisonings to the police, told officers that the dogs had never shown aggression. This wasn’t an act of vigilante justice, a local activist told Kavkaz.Realii. “We’ll never know how many childhood conflicts that big, gentle dog helped defuse — the one the kids loved to tug on by the ears,” she said. “And there’s no doubt more strays will eventually wander into [the neighborhood].”
Back in March, another mass killing of dogs took place on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. A video shared on social media showed a man dragging a dog’s corpse by a rope tied to his car and leaving it on a pile of dead animals. According to the Telegram channel Mash Gor, at least 30 dead animals were found at the site. So far, police haven’t launched an investigation.
A matter of ‘public safety’
The recent wave of stray dog killings in southern Russia became the latest flashpoint in a growing national controversy over a proposed law that would allow shelters to euthanize homeless animals after a set period. The bill, introduced in late February 2025 by 25 State Duma lawmakers, argues that sterilized animals should not be released back onto the streets due to the risk of attacks on children.
The proposal sparked widespread public backlash across Russia. Residents of Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, and the Republic of Dagestan — along with dozens of other cities and regions — recorded video appeals in defense of stray animals. In the Rostov region and Krasnodar Krai, volunteers launched petitions, which soon turned into street demonstrations. On March 22, protesters gathered in front of the opera house in Volgograd; on April 5, a similar protest was held on the outskirts of Krasnodar. Demonstrations also took place in Novosibirsk, Kaliningrad, the Udmurt Republic, Zabaykalsky Krai, and the Republic of Tatarstan.
The pushback didn’t stop with grassroots organizers. Even members of the Federation Council’s Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building — led by United Russia senator Andrey Klishas — criticized the proposal. Klishas acknowledged that the bill contradicted Russia’s legal framework on animal welfare. Notably, “responsible treatment of animals” had been a key talking point used to promote the Kremlin’s 2020 constitutional amendments (the main one being a reset of presidential term limits for Vladimir Putin).
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On March 17, lawmakers postponed consideration of the bill. A week later, one of its co-sponsors, Sultan Khamzaev — a deputy from Dagestan — defended the initiative, claiming that “the majority of citizens are demanding that lawmakers restore order on this issue.” Even a single dog attack on a child, he argued, warrants action. Over the past year, he said, more than 300,000 dog attacks on people had been reported nationwide. According to Khamzaev, officials must act in the name of “public safety — a crucial concept.”
Indeed, dog attacks have become a serious and recurring issue across Russia. In mid-March, stray dogs bit an 11-year-old boy in Vladikavkaz. His mother issued a public ultimatum to city officials: if nothing changed, she would “poison all the dogs herself.” In response, Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin ordered local law enforcement to open a criminal case.
In April, a criminal negligence case was launched in Krasnodar Krai after stray dogs attacked several children. Residents told investigators this was not the first such incident. That month, Krasnodar Krai appeared more frequently than any other region in official reports about dog attacks — though not all involved strays.
According to those reports, victims of dog attacks have included children, teenagers, and elderly people. In late March, a pack of strays attacked a 76-year-old woman in Dagestan. She was unable to fend them off, and no one was nearby to help. She was later found dead with multiple bite wounds.
Even nonfatal attacks can lead to serious complications. In some areas, medical workers have reported shortages of rabies vaccines. In April, a woman in Sochi was turned away from an emergency clinic because the vaccine was unavailable. And according to the Telegram channel Shot, the drug is in short supply in at least two other regions.
‘Irresponsible people’
In Dagestan, where the problem of stray animals is especially acute, those trying to address it are doing so purely on personal initiative. There’s no unified network and no “serious” animal welfare organizations to lead the effort, says a volunteer at a shelter in the city of Kaspiysk.
“For years, the authorities in Kaspiysk have talked about setting up a municipal sterilization facility, but nothing has come of it,” she said. “In Makhachkala, there’s [a city-run shelter] that was hastily established after the death of a young girl and the subsequent slaughter of stray dogs. They catch dogs, sterilize them, and eventually release them back onto the streets — mostly on the outskirts.”
The fatal attack she refers to took place in February 2017, when a nine-year-old girl was mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs in Makhachkala. The incident triggered a wave of dog killings across the city. Videos of people shooting strays and photos of animal carcasses quickly spread on social media. In response, local authorities allocated land for a shelter on the grounds of an abandoned industrial site. But animal welfare advocates weren’t included in the project.
“At first, volunteers came and tried to help — the conditions were awful,” the Kaspiysk volunteer said. “Eventually, they seemed to get things running more smoothly. I’ve only been there once myself.”
A public figure from Dagestan, who spoke with Kavkaz.Realii on condition of anonymity, agrees that stray animals have, in many cases, become a genuine danger to residents. But the populist proposals now coming from lawmakers, he says, are often reactive and poorly thought through.
“Instead of enforcing the laws we already have, instead of holding local officials accountable for doing their jobs, a deputy proposes we just kill the animals,” he said. “But where does that logic end? What else can’t our officials handle — orphaned children, hospital patients, retirees living on small pensions? Should we just get rid of them too?”
An activist from Krasnodar who took part in a protest against the proposed law allowing shelters to euthanize strays believes the measure won’t be adopted in its current form — either at the federal or regional level.
“And even if it did become law, it wouldn’t prevent tragedies like the one in Sochi, where a child was nearly killed — not by strays, but by pet dogs whose owner hadn’t fed them in more than 10 days,” she said. “They escaped and attacked the child. Lawmakers may want to eliminate strays, but what are we going to do about irresponsible people?”
