All shelters for stray animals in the Novosibirsk region are full, each containing 200-250 dogs.
The head of the Novosibirsk Regional Center for Veterinary and Hygienic Support, Yuri Shmidt, told reporters about this.
“Today, there are about 20 shelters in Novosibirsk and the Novosibirsk region, where the entire process of proper care and maintenance of homeless animals takes place. They are overcrowded,” he said. Each shelter has up to 250 animals, Schmidt told .
The press service of the regional Ministry of Agriculture explains: There are 2 municipal shelters and 17 private shelters in the region, which house about 2.6 thousand animals. At the same time, the need for additional locations is about 1 thousand.
Most shelters operate a Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TSVT) program and release animals back to their original habitat. But according to Schmidt, the program poses some problems.
“You capture a stray dog, insert a chip into it, vaccinate it, cut open its abdomen and sew it up and then release it into its habitat. Then what does it do to humans? If it has not been socialized and there is some element of unmotivated aggression,” he told .
On October 30, the Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region passed in its first reading a bill that also regulates the killing of aggressive wild animals. The project provides for the establishment of centers for the temporary detention of animals, the determination of procedures for their activities and a closed list of grounds for euthanasia. The explanatory notes for the project state that sterilization of unowned animals does not guarantee a reduction in the aggression they display.
“Aggressive behavior caused by fear, stress, illness or territorial claims may persist even after sterilization,” the document said.
It was also clarified that taking into account the presence of remote and sparsely populated areas in the region, where the construction of shelters is difficult and financially unreasonable, the presence of animal shelters can be effective. The regional government said enforcement of the law on the treatment of unowned animals will be strictly controlled by the public.
Galina Vereshchagina, president of the Vernost animal protection fund in Novosibirsk, said she does not support the bill on killing stray animals.
“Any dog can be placed in an order, any dog can be socialized. It takes time and effort,” she told the agency.
The Vernost shelter houses about 200 dogs, many of whom have lived there for more than 15-20 years. According to her, the shelter exists only thanks to private donations – it needs 160 kg of meat per day and has a debt of 58 thousand rubles to food suppliers. Previously, a protest against the bill took place in the city.
Stray animals in the area
In January 2025, one person died due to an attack by a wild animal. Previously, many cases of dogs attacking people were continuously recorded in the area. Since the beginning of 2025, 5.8 thousand homeless animals have been discovered in the Novosibirsk region, including 5 thousand dogs and 804 cats.
The problem of releasing stray animals is very acute in Novosibirsk. According to the city mayor's office, the city's only active shelter can only hold 100 animals, while more than 650 animals are captured each year. Construction of the new shelter has been planned for several years. It is planned to open a new temporary detention center for stray animals in the city by the end of 2025. The project for another shelter has been sent for review.
To organize a new shelter in the Tatar district, the regional budget until 2026 allocated 12.1 million rubles for design documentation; Major repair of the building is estimated at 150 million rubles. In addition, under the “OSVV” program, the public fund “Boomerang of Good NSK” was granted a plot of land with an area of almost 15 thousand square meters. m to accommodate shelter.
