Uzbek anger at poisoning of stray dogs

People in the historic Uzbek city of Samarkand have reacted angrily to reports that the local council has been poisoning stray dogs ahead of an international music festival.

The Repost.uz news site posted a video on Facebook that seems to show a man putting poison bait outside houses in a residential area, and said this was an official campaign to clear the streets of unwanted animals ahead of the annual Sharq Taronalari (Oriental Melodies) festival, which ran last week.

The reaction online was angry, with people urging others to share the Facebook post.

"It's typical - they destroy rather than try to solve the problem. Everyone involved from the top to the bottom should get what's coming to them," was a representative comment.

Some suggested translating the post into English and sending to foreign media so visitors to the festival could see what was happening.

Several people were particularly horrified that the bait was laid by houses where pets rather than strays might eat it.

The Samarkand Mayor's Office responded to the protests a day later to say its veterinary department had run an operation to "vaccinate unregistered pets against rabies, because of an increase in cases of stray dogs attacking passers-by", and that some rabid animals had been killed humanely.

But it did acknowledge that one team member had gone rogue and started laying poison bait by residential houses.

The Mayor's Office said this was illegal, and the man in question would be punished.

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The clarification has not reassured all of the public, some of whom do not believe this was an isolated incident.

There have been reports of domestic animals and even children falling ill after eating poisoned bait in the city, and members of the public have sent Repost.uz dozens of photographs of poisoned dogs, cats and even birds lying dead on the street.

"This is evidence of the serious and large-scale nature of the clear-up operation," Repost.uz says, adding that some people had complained that their pets had died after receiving the vaccinations.

Sources at Samarkand Council told the the Moscow-based Ferghana news site that animals were being cleared from the streets "to make the city more pleasant for visitors to the music festival".

But the reports have led to demands for prosecutions not only from Uzbekistan but also abroad, according to the animal welfare organisation Mehr va Oqibat, which said several overseas visitors to Samarkand told it they were cancelling their travel plans.

The head of Samarkand's Veterinary Department, Oybek Allamurodov, told the Daryo news site that only one pet dog had been poisoned by mistake, but Mehr va Oqibat is gathering evidence with a view to forwarding it to the prosecutors - especially as Uzbekistan recently toughened its laws on animal cruelty.

Reporting by Martin Morgan

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