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Animal rights activists who participated in a debate at the Seimas organized by the Lithuanian Christian National-Democratic Union (TS-LKD) party explained that illegal kennels, where dogs are sometimes kept in rabbit cages, are very old, but no one has responded for a long time.
The SFVS received the most criticism on Tuesday, saying that local inspectors often know about multipliers and therefore do nothing.
The police, according to animal rights advocates, often limit themselves to shaking hands in animal-related cases.
I. Pileckienė – Inspectors generally don’t see any problems
Indrė Pileckienė, founder of the Dogspotas dog shelter, said Tuesday that after the discovery of an illegal animal shelter, animal rights advocates often invite the police, SFVS inspectors and city representatives.
“The real picture is that regardless of the dire conditions the animals are kept in, SFVS inspectors don’t see a problem with how they are kept and in what conditions they live,” he said.
According to I. Pileckienė, the Law on the Welfare and Protection of Animals is often not applied at all and the attitude of the representatives of the services to the problem is Soviet.
“Crippling mating is considered cruelty to animals, we have to subpoena the law to the inspectors because sometimes they don’t know about it. Confiscation of animals is rare, generally illegal breeders receive a legalization plan and then legalize, but the conditions in which animals are kept do not change, ”he said.
Dogspoto’s founder emphasized that representatives of state institutions can make decisions on the scene, but generally do nothing. Non-governmental officials, he said, can do nothing more than gather evidence and lift a finger.
“We do not have power and those who have it do not use it,” she said indignantly.
According to the founder of the shelter, the network of breeders is large, these people are sometimes associated with inspectors, veterinarians.
Offers to track ads
Ilma Germanienė, director of the Ukmergė animal shelter “Klajūnas”, said that the problem of breeders is not new, it has simply not been solved for many years.
According to her, it is strange that no one follows the dozens of advertisements placed on advertising platforms, offering to buy cheaper breeding animals.
“If a person from the institutions were responsible and the Skelbiu.lt portal was opened, a person would upload several hundred ads a year. We send messages with (breeders – aut.) Names and contacts; we have been waiting for a response for months and not we received it, ”he said.
I.Germanienė is convinced that there is a network of illegal breeders in Lithuania. She believes that there are close ties between the breeders and the representatives of the services that control them, and that the inspectors who arrive openly shake hands with the owners of the breeders.
Kamilė Sakalauskaitė, Head of Communication for the Animal Welfare Initiative, pointed out that SFVS Animal Welfare Units employ non-veterinarians and have no jurisdiction to decide on the animal’s condition.
According to her, it happens that veterinarians do not intervene in these cases because they are afraid of not receiving the licenses distributed by the SFVS.
Jurgita Gustaitienė, director of Nuaro and veterinarian, pointed out that it was not the SFVS that created this problem, but the public by buying animals from illegal breeders.
Photo by Luke April / 15 minutes / Darius Remeika
Darius Remeika, head of the SFVS, provided data that there were no cases during the weekend in which SFVS representatives were not present at the scene of the detected cases of illegal breeders.
It is true that he admitted that, in some cases, the inspectors were in no rush to get to the scene; the journey took an hour or two.
According to him, 12 episodes were detected during the weekend, in 7 cases the animals were delivered by the keepers themselves, in some cases the confiscation procedures were completed.
According to him, in the case of the Kretinga kennel, all the animals were taken from the same person who found the kennel in 2014 due to negligence.
“It just came to our attention then. This is really a necessity for people to be banned from keeping animals for a while,” he said.
The head of the service pointed out that the control of animal welfare should be carried out not only by the SFVS, but also by the representatives of the municipality and the police.
“We have limited operational capabilities, we cannot use tracking tools,” he responded to the complaint that the SFVS was not looking for an advertisement for the sale of animals.
Remeika disagreed that nothing be done about it. According to her, the advertising portals were asked to request a breeder’s registration number, so that only legal breeders could advertise.
“They told us there wouldn’t be,” he assured her.
According to the head of the SFVS, the service has requested the Ministry of Economy and Innovation to make it mandatory.
Remeika said the service would need more capacity to monitor the situation and react quickly if necessary.
Conservative Aistė Gedvilienė asked about the relationships between SFVS representatives and the illegal breeders mentioned by animal rights advocates. Animal advocates emphasized that the Special Investigation Service (STT) has inspected how SFVS inspectors implement animal welfare controls.
Egidijus Macelis, head of the Animal Health and Welfare Division of the State Food and Veterinary Service (SFVS), said that more people had been hired, so now there is an opportunity for inspectors to rotate to go to the same place to inspections.
According to him, the SFVS Investigation Division will find out whether the service inspectors could have “acted more effectively” in all the cases identified over the weekend.
A spokesman for the service said there would be a procedure whereby an inspector, once an inspection has been conducted, would not go there a second time.
“This will secure the recommendation of the STT,” he said.
Police representative: detention conditions must be decided by SFVS
Mindaugas Akelaitis, head of the Public Police Board, said at the meeting that ensuring animal welfare is not a direct function of the police, officers often react to notifications received.
“With regard to violations of animal welfare, I can say that in 7 months 46 pre-trial investigations for animal cruelty have been initiated. 68 complaints of administrative infractions were written in 8 months. To say that the police are not doing anything in this area , I think it is not possible, “he said.
When asked if the police recognize violence against animals, M. Akkelaitis said that he did not know what the statements were based on.
Photo by Luke April / 15min / Meeting on cruelty to animals in illegal kennels
“The Penal Code stipulates that if an animal has died as a result of torture or ill-treatment or is mutilated, it’s obvious, I don’t think there is a need for knowledge here and the police make those decisions. If we talk about the conditions for keeping animals, I think there is an SFVS that sets the requirements and has competent people who can say that, ”said the police representative.
The head of the Klajūnas animal shelter reminded M. Akelaitis of the case in which the dog Greid was brought to the shelter and raped by its owner. According to her, the summoned officers did not even go to the dog, they said that everything was in order in the yard and the owner was calm.
K.Sakalauskaitė added that the police officers admitted that they had known about the raped animal for a long time, but had done nothing.
“If they don’t consider him cruel or violent … We turn to the police for violence, but it turns out that the police turn to us,” he asked.
That someone can make a human error is a fact.
M. Akelaitis stated that animal rights defenders speak of a specific case, but there are many such cases.
“We employ about 7 thousand people. Officials, 4,000 of whom are responding to the facts. That someone can commit a human error is a fact,” said the police representative.
The first illegal kennel was discovered by accident
A woman searching for a lost pet over the weekend accidentally discovered what is believed to be an illegal kennel where animals are kept in dire conditions. Later, similar locations were found elsewhere.
Police have launched five pre-trial animal cruelty investigations since Saturday.
As the Police Department spokesperson informed BNS, pre-trial investigations were launched in the districts of Alytus, Marijampolė, Tauragė, Širvintos and Kretinga.
The SFVS reported that in recent days, residents and responsible services, together with representatives of animal welfare institutions, have organized raids on pet farms in Kretinga, Širvintos, Tauragė, Kaunas, Šiauliai, etc. In the districts, investigations into violations of animal welfare and housing conditions and possible illegal animal husbandry have been initiated.
The State Food and Veterinary Office (SFVS) notes that at each inspection, officials assessed and recorded the circumstances at the scene. Animals were kept in inadequate conditions (eg in transport cages, an area too small for them, injured animals that were not treated, not fed, etc.). It is suspected that animals kept for breeding were not marked, their records were not kept, etc.
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