The key facts

  • KPRF and senator Gibatdinov sent an appeal to Deputy Prime Minister Patrushev on transferring expired and confiscated products to forestry districts and shelters
  • Under current law, such products must be destroyed
  • The initiative is linked to emaciated bears coming out to people, including the incident in Ivdel

Lawmakers' initiative

Deputies of the KPRF faction in the State Duma, together with senator Ayrat Gibatdinov, proposed handing over part of the products with expired shelf life, as well as seized and confiscated fish products and agricultural products banned from import, to forestry districts and animal shelters — for feeding predators, dogs and cats. The appeal has been sent to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev, Gazeta.Ru reported.

What is proposed to change

The authors of the initiative point out that such products are currently required by law to be destroyed, although part of them is quite suitable for feeding animals. In senator Gibatdinov's opinion, bears come out of the forest 'not because life is good': according to him, video footage of the animals' appearances this year shows that they are emaciated and need to build up fat for the winter. He proposed transporting confiscated goods and expired products slated for destruction to bear habitats, as well as sending them to shelters, which constantly face a shortage of feed. In the KPRF they noted that a similar initiative had previously been voiced in the legislative assembly of Kamchatka Krai.

Context of the incidents

The authors link the initiative to the worsening of the 'bear problem'. At the end of October, a hungry bear broke into a house in Ivdel in Sverdlovsk Oblast and went on a rampage. Earlier, details also emerged of a bear attacking a hunter in the south of Krasnoyarsk Krai. For now, the appeal to the deputy prime minister remains a proposal: sources do not report any government decision on it.