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Part:
LETTERS FROM GUARDIANS OF HOMELESS ANIMALS AND CITIZENS ABOUT CRUEL TREATMENT WITH ANIMALS
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Letter from residents of Malakhovka Village, Moscow Region
To: Mr. E.A. Ilyinsky, Director, "Charitable Society
for the Guardianship of Homeless Animals".
from the dwellers at:
Moscow Region,
Malakhovka, Bykovskoe Highway...
Petition
In our district, at Bykovskoe Highway, 42, Flat. 60 there lives the Kon'kovs family: Mother Inga Kon'kova, Son Aleksei, etc. This is a family of drunkards, hooligans and murderers.
The Mother and her family are in a cat "business" and, to a degree, dog "business". The kind-hearted pet owners give their animals away to them for sale, and Rbls. 100 per each kitten, into the bargain, being confident that their pets (kittens and puppies) will be accommodated in "caring hands". The kittens are crammed into holdalls, she has no time to sell them, and frankly speaking, she does not try too hard. The family start throwing the kittens out of the windows on the 4th floor. Sometimes, the kittens are put into a bag, which is tied and thrown out of the windows into the street, too. The bags with kittens are dangling on the trees. Separate thrown out animals remain dangling on the trees - dying. The kittens falling to the ground, occasionally with broken paws, spines, find sympathy with the residents; the animals are treated for diseases and operated on, food is given to them. In a bid to rescue the animals dangling from trees, people saw off the trees. One cannot see sufferings of the animals without compassion. The woman in question assembles kittens near "Vykhino" metro station, at the exit to the foodstuffs bazaar; pretty often, the kittens do not reach her flat: the woman gets rid of them before she reaches her home. The residents of the nearest houses pick up the poor darlings, feed and nurse them. Thus, one woman rescued and treated with a veterinary 9 kittens. The drunk woman. However, is in the habit of burying kitten alive in snow, where they freeze to death. The residents of our houses can no longer tolerate this kind of outrage committed at animals.
One cannot sit on the benches near the house: all the time there comes whining and crying of our smaller brethren - the kittens; the kitten are at someone's home, hungry.
We appeal to you to institute criminal proceedings (by the staff of the Public Prosecutor's Office) against a family, living at House no 42, Flat 60 for persecution of the animals (Art. 245 of the RF Criminal Code).
Besides, one invariably hears abuse, obscene language from that flat; all the time, the flat is a place for drunken parties of drug addicts and persons of unidentified style of life. None of the family members works, they are only engaged in cat business. The younger son Artem (aged 9) is weeping all the time - he does not go to school. Music is absolutely shattering the whole house, they are playing cassettes with Russian invective. All this goes on day and night. The residents have no peace.
The Kon'kovs family throw food wastes, pour dirty water out of the windows of the 4th floor of their flat. The Kon'kovs smash the windows of their neighbors with bottles.
Flat No 60 is a model of antisanitariness: wastes + cat and dog feces result in a foul smell which spreads all over the entrance space. Cockroaches and bed bugs run to scatter all over the building.
We filed similar complaints with Moscow Police Station, The administration of the village council, Department for State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision, Department for House Maintenance No 9.
No action has been taken.
Do remove this family from our house. We also beg to submit this matter to the Office of Public Prosecutor for Moscow Region.
House No 41, December 16, 2003, 23 signatures
(Comment by site editor: We never applied to the Public Prosecutor's Office on this matter. As long as there is overpopulation of pets, there will be second-hand dealers. Should Inga be penalized, other second-hand dealers will only stand to gain from this, because this way their competitor will be eliminated. This will not make life easier to a single kitten or puppet: in the absence of Inga all of them will be grabbed by some other second-hand dealer, just as bad as Inga. People want to get rid of the nightmare, this is their personal problem. And we want not only Malakhovka, but the entire Russia to be rid of such nightmare. This is why we insist on curbing the breeding of domestic animals)
*****
Letter from residents of Moscow North-Western District
To: Director of the Autonomous Non-profit
"Charitable Society
for the Guardianship of homeless Animals"
Evgeny Anatolievich Ilyinsky!
Re: Inhumane treatment of animals.
On 08.08.2003г. at 3rd Parkovaya Street... at the direction of Mrs. V.M. Orlova, and officer of the section on municipal improvements of the Unitary Customer Management "Izmailovo" an air-duct into the right section of the basement was walled up dead from the blind area under the loggia of our flat No, which had, for over 20 years been used by the cats that lived in that compartment of the basement.
The blind area, its depth around 80 cm, narrow, is at a depth under the loggia, is located at the butt-end of the building, invisible from the street, is covered from the top with a solid iron fender, molded into concrete, and this air-duct is convenient for cats to use.
At the same time, V.M.Orlova officially opened an air-duct for the cats to pass into the basement compartment on the left side of the building under flat No..., where one Baikov M.A. lives, who hates cats pathologically, applie, on more than one occasion, to the district house maintenance authority and the Unitary Customer Management, and insisted that the air-duct be walled up and all cats be driven away from the basement compartment, even from the compartment that was in the opposite wing of the building under flat No....
On the evening of the same day, i.e. 08.08.2003. when the air-duct was officially opened, Baikov closed it with bricks.
When we told the man that the air-duct had been officially opened by Orlova, and nobody was allowed to close it, Baikov said: "I don't care a damn, I've always closed the air-ducts and do not intend to stop".
Besides, the open air-duct is not suitable for use by the cats, it is very narrow, a big cat is unable to squeeze through it, only a little kitten will be able to creep into it, the air-duct is too high above the ground surface, and cats never lived in this basement compartment.
Baikov capitalizes on permissiveness, impunity and toleration on the part of the district house maintenance and unitary customer management with a view to exterminating cats.
Because he had the keys from the house basement, Baikov personally closed the air-ducts in the basement compartment under his flat.
Baikov went on to say to A., a woman living in flat No... on the ground floor of our house, but in the opposite wing, that at first he would wall up the air-duct under the flat, leading to the basement compartment, where the cats used to live always, and then would be killing the cats.
T, a womal living on the first floor told about this scheme of Baikjov А. To T., living on the first floor in flat No ... in the same wing of the building.
Apparently, this happened the way it was described above, because already on 06.06.2003, the air-duct under the loggia of flat No... was walled up, on 16.06.2003, there was a strong putrid smell emanating from the basement, and on 18.06.200, a commission made up of S.Ilyinskaya, G., M., a 7-year old child by the name of Yu., representatives of ecological militia and your good self, opened the basement and discovered the corpses of 2 rotten cats aged 3-4 months. Representatives of the district house maintenance department (2 persons), the investigator of "Izmailovo" Department of the Interior, the person in charge of the house Tch. (flat No....), the Baikovs from flat No 3 and the Bakalyuks from flat No 5 (of our house) refused to descend into the basement, although all of them were in the courtyard of the house.
One of the poor cats had been squeezed in between two horizontal thick pipes, the space between them being not more than 3 cm. The pipes ran at the level of the torso and the head, definitely the cats had been unable to slip in between the pipes in such a space of 3 cm.
The other cat was lying under the pipes, there lay a slip-knot besides the corpse, an iron bar, sticks and bricks.
And, of course the cats would have been unable to wall themselves up alive in the basement.
NOBODY HAD SEEN A FIEND WHO HAD WALLED UP THE CATS ALIVE IN THE BASEMENT, NO BODY HAD SEEN HIM HANGING THEM,STILL ONE THING IS CLEAR: THE CATS WERE DYING A HORRIBLE, EXCRUCIATING DEATH, IT IS ALSO CLEAR THAT THIS KIND OF INASNITY COULD ONLY HAVE BEEN COMMITTED BY AN INSANE SATANIST, DEVOID OF HUMAN DIGNITY, A MATURE BEAST.
Baikov is an extremely tough and aggressive person. The sight of cats and persons who act as guardians of these unfortunate creatures infuriates him and makes him spiteful.
G., living at 3rd Parkovaya Street, and several other persons from the neighboring house engage in charity activity aimed at animal welfare: feeding cats, clearing the streets after them and monitoring the cats' condition.
On 08.09.2003. when G. was feeding cats in the evening, suddenly Baikov emerged out of nowhere and shouted on top of his voice: "get out of here with your bloody cats, or I'll beat up you and your cats with this stick", there was a thick 1.5 m long wooden stick lying on the ground nearby.
G. was feeding the cats on the opposite side of the house, from the butt-end of flat No..., quite a long way from the entrance into the house all the more so from Baikov's flat, which is on the side of the building's facade, while flat No... - on the backside of the house.
Baikov threatened G. with violence on more than one occasion, he insulted and keeps insulting G. in a most obscene base invective, foul language.
V.F.Baikova, E. Bakalyuk and Baikov's daughter Olga (40) follow suit.
This kind of behavior is characteristic of mentally unbalanced people with sadistic propensity, unpredictable in their acts and deeds.
Like humans, the animals are sentient creatures: they feel pain, fear, have the same diseases as people do; experience maternal feelings and anguish over the loss of their children. To cats, their kittens are like our children to us. These creatures understand everything, but cannot say anything. Still, one can read in their eyes pain and fear, suffering and love, tenderness and devotion.
Therefore, we should treat our smaller brethren in a humane manner and should consider their interests.
Philanthropic activity of organizations and individuals is legitimized by a number of normative documents (Art. 12 of the RF Civil Code; Art. 14 of the RF Civil Code; Federal Law No 135 -FZ dated 11.08.1995; Moscow Law No 11-463М dated 05.07.1995).
Guardians of animals do not commit any unlawful acts. The guardians' only fault is their love of animals.
Since the winter of 2002, they have been jibing at cats to this day: in winter, they threw them out at 20 degrees Centigrade, and the kittens usually froze stiff, turning into frozen nubbins, 4 times the kittens were walled up alive in the basement.
Ever since the cats were driven out of the basement in June, 2003, they have lived under the vehicles parked in the courtyard, since the very moment when the air-duct under the loggia of flat No... was walled up for the 4th time (06.06.2003), when the cats were chased all over the basement and finally two of them were walled up alive, hung up on the pipes; still, the cats never left for good: they had lived here for over 20 years, this is their home.
On 08.08.2003, the air-duct under the loggia of flat No... was walled up yet another time, whereupon all hopes for the return of cats into the basement were ruined.
Now, the cats, frozen through, wet, curled up, clinging to one another in frozen nubbins, are sitting on the concrete under the loggia of flat No... near the pit and are waiting for someone to let them in their home.
However, the Baikovs and Bakalyuks are driving the cats away from the pit with bricks and sticks. Hence, a logical question: what were Orlova's rationale and considerations, when she ordered the walling up of the air-duct, leading to the basement compartment under flat No36, so familiar and comfortable to the cats, and opened an air-duct, not suitable for cats (which is why cats never lived in this compartment of the basement), to make matters worse, the air-duct is right under the flat of Baikov, a person who hates cats like nobody else does.
There was no need for opening or closing the air-ducts: this was done either deliberately or with lack of reason, under the pressure of the Baikovs, Bakalyuks and other signatories.
Nominally, the air-duct is open to the cats, but they are unable to use it, freeze outdoors, because this open trapdoor is a sham.
Thus, the cats are thrown out into the street, made homeless, are deprived of shelter in a season of cold, dank autumn and on the eve of the winter. Cats are heat-loving animals, are unable to live outdoors, they will die of supercooling.
All aforesaid actions of both the local authorities (District House Maintenance Depot.-21, 3rd Parkovaya St., and Unitary Customer Management "Izamilovo", 5th Parkovaya St., House No...), and private individuals - irreconcilable fighters against cats, are immoral and depraved, qualified as jibing and cruelty towards animal, and, pursuant to Art. 245 of the RF Criminal Code, are penal actions. The animals became homeless through the fault of man, and man must help them. The cats should be accommodated in their former basement compartment under the loggia of flat No 6. Should the cats stay outdoors for another 5-6 days, they will die. Part of them has already been exterminated physically.
Dear Evgeny Anatolievich!
Please, do help us protect absolutely innocent animals - cats from a gang of spiteful hooligans who lost all restraint: the Baikovs, Bakalyuks, Chebotarevs, violating all legislative normative documents relating to animal welfare, as well as from unlawful acts of the local authorities: District house maintenance departments and Unitary customer management units.
Please, do help us rescue the few surviving cats.
October 28, 2003, two signatures
(Comment by site editor: Our organization summoned by the authors of the letter on 18.06.2003 in connection with walling up cats alive in the basement and the presence of persistent putrid smell, drew up a basement inspection report, signed by a group of witnesses, with a description of the place of accident and of the kittens suspended on the pipes. On the strength of discovering in the basement the tell-tale signs of cruel treatment of animals (Art. 245 of the RF Criminal Code) our organization petitioned the Department of the Interior "Izmailovo", but a month later it received a judgment of dismissal of institution of criminal proceedings. After the authors of the letter turned to the Moscow City Duma, in November 2003, in response to a query of one of the deputies of the Moscow City Duma an initiative group was set up to conduct an independent investigation of the facts referred to in the letter.)
*****
Letter from a woman-resident of Moscow Western District
To: Charitable Society for the Protection of Homeless Animals
Petition
I kindly request your assistance in protecting the cats living in the garret of our house. I am a guardian of these cats. I've been feeding and taking care of them since 1998. Since that time, I have endured so much from the Department of House Maintenance, both morally and materially. During all this time, they've been persecuting the cats almost non-stop. They used to add some poison to the cats' food. Then, they kept pouring chlorine in the garret in bucketfuls, they certainly were generous in doing this. Later, they switched to some black poisonous powder, I cleaned all that, wearing a mask. Without the mask, I felt suffocation in the throat. During the period in question, they exterminated 8 cats. On July 16, 2003, they diluted chlorine with some poisonous powder and scattered this mixture all over the garret, daubing the staircases with the substance. I began cleaning the place, and was unable to do the job without a gas mask: suffocation was too much, tears ran in streams down my cheeks. I collected a full bucket of this stuff, nearly poisoning myself. I had to wash my stomach with milk. My hands were calcined. The water with which I was washing the garret was nearly boiling. The cats were sneezing like hell. One of the cats disappeared. I was looking for it, all in vain. I have no idea, where it was gone. I suspect that it died.
They keep throwing out the food that I leave for the cats. The same goes for little plates and bowls with water.
They keep closing the door leading to the garret. Once, they closed that door and I was unable to get to the cats for three days. When I finally did get in, the cats were barely alive. I'm being threatened all the time: "we'll call you to account, and shall poison your cats. Now, we'll call the sanitary -and-epidemiological station, and they will find the poison for your cats."
Please, do take more stern measures to these murderers, because they have managed to poison all cats, using their dirty methods, not only in the garret, but also in the basements of our houses.
19.07.2003, Signature
*****
Letter from the dwellers of Moscow South-East Administrative District
To: Chief of the Department of the Interior "Pechatniki "
Petition from citizens
For the last 20 days in the basement of school No 846 at Ulitsa Polbina, 44, cats have been walled up with a view to their cruel extermination on orders from school administration; school principal, head of the curriculum department and school steward.
We, the undersigned citizens, are hereby petitioning the Department of the Interior "Pechatniki" about the criminal unlawful fact and are appealing not to allow the extermination of animals by an inhumane method before the very eyes of children, for the sake of and for the good of the children, as the head of the curriculum department motivates, allegedly taking care of "the order and cleanliness of the basement".
At present, there exist up-to-date methods of sterilization and castration, likewise, there are laws aimed at the protection of homeless animals.
At our request, the "Charitable Society for the guardianship of Homeless Animals" spoke over the telephone with the head of the curriculum department (she represented the interests of the school). That lady confirmed that the basement had been walled up at Principal's direction, specifically for the purpose of exterminating cats.
The spokeswoman of the Society for the guardianship of homeless animals explained professionally, from the standpoint of the existing legislation, the likely measure of responsibility for premeditated murder of animals.
The explanation failed to evoke an adequate understanding.
On 21.02.03 at 19-15 (Friday) "Charitable Society for the Guardianship of Homeless Animals" summoned a militiaman to attest the act of opening up the closed trapdoors (air-ducts provided for by the maintenance regulations). The residents waited for an hour but never met with the militiaman.
In a bid to rescue the animals, the citizen O. opened the closed air-ducts.
No damage was caused to the school, as the air-ducts had been closed with a heavy chunk of concrete (from the staircase) and timber wedges driven in as braces and nailed.
We, residents, hereby accuse the administration of torturing animals and dooming them to a slow excruciating death, without food or air.
We accuse women, teachers of having been so immoral and ruthless in their brutal "justice" and impunity, of being devoid of any compassion; cynical in their speech, they regard their act as normal.
This group of administration has to do with the upbringing of children, the punitive measures applied to animals will be projected on the upbringing of children.
Some people find it hard to assimilate notions common to all mankind.
As the pieces of concrete were being removed, hot air was released from the air-ducts, indicating that there were blow-holes in hot pipes: that's where the administrative zeal ought to have been directed.
We were unable, however, to remove the animals from the basement because of its inaccessibility as well as due to the deadly stress experienced by the animals, driven to the point of dystrophy.
The confrontation of the residents ended by a statement made by the school steward, who promised to annul the animals with a poison taken from the sanitary-and-epidemiological station. The steward definitely does not realize that by annulling animals, we thereby poison the earth and the air we breathe. The previous family of cats was poisoned a year ago.
23.02.03, 5 signatures
(Comment by site editor: Our organization arrived in school No 846 in response to a telephone call from the authors of the letter on 21.02.2003; on the strength of the fact of cats being walled up alive in the basement, with tell-tale signs of cruel treatment of the animals (Art. 245 of thr RF Criminal Code) we filed a complaint to the Lyublino Inter-district Pubic Prosecutor's Office, but later we received an order to dismiss a criminal complaint. The facts referred to in the aforesaid letter were published in the "Moskovskaya Pravda" newspaper)
*****
Letter from a woman-dweller of Moscow South-West Administrative District
To: Director of the Autonomous Non-profit Organization
"Charitable Society for the Guardianship of Homeless Animals"
E.A. Ilyinsky
For years, several residents have been acting as guardians of homeless cats that until recently had inhabited the basement of our house. The number of those cats varied within 10-12 individuals. Every day, we used to cook food for them, we sterilized a few cats for our own money. We had visited the basement regularly and did the needful to facilitate the life of the unfortunate creatures. We used to sweep the basement, remove the crumbled-out glass-fiber cloth, as the pipes are wound with a thin glass fabric offhandedly, the fabric is not secured on the outside. The glass crumbles out and falls on the floor. The glass fabric has no covering. The glass powder formed as a result of crumbling out eventually sticks to the animals' feet. The animals lick off the powder and fall ill; eventually, they die in pain. We saw this for ourselves. We tried to wind the pipes over with whatever materials came our way, all to stop the claims of the house maintenance department. Believe us, we have exerted ourselves, spent money and experienced a lot to solve the problem. We keep doing all this to this day. We receive virtually no assistance.
But in June of 2005, a most terrible thing happened: they renewed thermal insulation of the pipes in the basement using the same glass-fiber fabric, whereupon all air-ducts were closed with grates.
Cats' whining and plaintive meowing were heard for several days.
We opened the basement and released a few male cats. Three grown-up kittens were dead, and the fourth one was hung up, its feet on the grate of the air-duct, and so it was hanging dead. One of us women fainted, so we had to use validol and volocardine.
Dear Evgeny Anatolievich, please, find out this: is it lawful to arrange the winding of pipes with glass-fiber fabric without any additional protective covering to prevent the crumbling out of the protective coating and formation of glass dust?
July 08, 2005, Signature
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