Burmatov: The number of animal bites has been declining for the fourth year in a row

Vladimir Burmatov.
© Yuri Inyakin/PG

In 2019, there were 270.55 cases of animal attacks on people resulting in “bites, scratches or saliva” per one hundred thousand people, in 2020 – 230.52 cases, in 2021 – 227.66 cases and in 2022 – 227, 35 cases. Vladimir Burmatov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Ecology, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, told Parlamentskaya Gazeta about such statistics provided by Rospotrebnadzor.

Rospotrebnadzor, in response to a request from a deputy, provided official statistics on the dynamics of appeals to medical organizations of citizens of the Russian Federation “for bites, saliva and scratches inflicted by animals.”

“For the period from 2019 to 2022 (cases per 100 thousand people): 2019 – 270.55 cases, 2020 – 230.52 cases, 2021 – 227.66 cases, 2022 – 227.35 cases, – says in a document that our publication has read.

These data show that the number of bites has been declining for the fourth year already, Burmatov noted. “We assume that this is a consequence of the construction of shelters by the regions. This is despite the fact that few shelters have been built so far. If there were a normative number of them, the result would be even brighter,” the deputy said.

He added that, according to the deputies, it is necessary to provide for the allocation of money to the regions for the construction of shelters on the terms of co-financing. “If the regions had federal support, this would make it possible to bring the number of shelters to the required level,” the parliamentarian believes.

Recall that the Responsible Treatment of Animals Act, which regulates, among other things, the treatment of stray animals, came into force on January 1, 2020. According to it, the regions are obliged to regulate the number of neglected animals with the help of shelters – to catch them, place them in shelters, sterilize, vaccinate, and then either look for their owners, or release them to their former habitat, if the animals do not show unmotivated aggression, or leave them to live in a shelter .

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