Dog-lovers are racing to save hundreds of stray dogs in Russia’s Far East, because of a decision by authorities to start putting them down.
Eighteen have been culled so far in the Eastern Siberian town of UIan-Ude, close to the Mongolian border.
Six hundred dogs have already been sent by train to new homes or private shelters elsewhere in Russia.
“A lot of good-hearted people have responded,” volunteer Stella Ovsoyan told BBC Russian.
They have boarded trains to Moscow, St Petersburg and Kazan in the west, and Khabarovsk and Vladivostok further east.
“They ask us to send a dog, any dog, a random one, no matter what it looks like. Their goal is simply to save a soul from death,” Ms Ovsoyan said.
The temperature is -20C at Ulan-Ude’s main station and a dozen people are waiting for the next train. Each of them has a dog on a leash or in their arms.
The dogs will be placed in a post carriage and sent to safety in the care of the train conductor.
Stray dogs are a big problem for Russia’s republic of Buryatia and authorities there controversially made a recent decision to put them down.
Ulan-Ude has a population of almost half a million and hardly a month goes by without news of somebody being bitten by a stray dog.
Credit: http://bbc.com
