A large-scale protest against the brutal stray dog culling program took place in Georgia

Animal rights activists held a protest rally near the government administration building in Tbilisi, demanding changes to the stray animal population management program and ensuring its transparency, UNN reports with reference to "News Georgia".

Details

The publication notes that the program has been implemented in Georgia since the end of February. It provides for the capture of street dogs, their delivery to municipal shelters, registration, rabies vaccination, and sterilization or castration. After that, the animals should be returned to their so-called natural environment.

However, according to the guardians, in practice, this rule is often not observed - some of the dogs "disappear". The fact is that a separate government decree prohibits returning animals to areas near schools, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, markets, sports and playgrounds.

Activists fear that dogs caught in such areas may be euthanized. The authorities reject these accusations, calling them political speculation.

During the week, animal rights activists visited shelters, trying to check the conditions of animal keeping and identify possible violations.

The action was held under the slogan "Stop animal torture". Dozens of people came to the rally with photos of missing dogs - mostly animals that lived in the yards of residential buildings and were under the informal care of local residents.

Protesters demand to legally enshrine the mandatory return of animals to their former places, to abandon their mass removal to shelters without necessity, and to ensure full transparency of the process, including photo and video recording of movements.

"When dogs are taken away, they must be returned to the same places - this is the main topic of our meetings. And secondly, the entire process must be transparent, it must be recorded on video. Of course, the animals must be registered, the process must take place within the law. We need to make sure that in the future we do not have homeless animals, but those that already exist cannot be touched. The process must be humane," activist Marina Bersanadze told reporters.

The Georgian government has not yet commented on the action.