Animal Monitoring Agency: Information on Dog Burial Site Is Disinformation

The Animal Monitoring Agency calls the footage broadcast by TV Pirveli and animal advocates disinformation. In the agency's statement, "the targeted campaign contains unverified and false information." According to the agency, the arbitrary opening of burial sites is illegal, so it has applied to law enforcement bodies.

The statement says that disinformation aims to mislead the public, discredit the agency's activities and deliberately damage its reputation. The agency considers it particularly alarming that facts are distorted to suggest it is carrying out mass and deliberate killing of animals. According to the agency, the video material related to the burial site and the arbitrary actions of part of the public aim to discredit the Tbilisi City Hall and artificially create tension in society.

The agency states that arbitrary opening of burial sites, removal and relocation of remains violates sanitary safety, creates a risk of spreading biological contamination, threatens human health and life, and damages the environment. According to the agency, citizens who participated in digging up the burial site must undergo medical examinations for their own health safety.

According to the agency, the process shown in the TV Pirveli footage is fully permitted by legislation. The burial site is intended for placing the remains of dogs that died for various reasons within the territory of Tbilisi. Among them are animals that died from disease, road accidents, accidents and natural death. The agency reports that in the capital, hundreds of animals are euthanized and thousands die of natural causes every year.

The agency says that this information has never been concealed, and data on its activities and animal management processes are public, while interested persons can review them on its official website. According to the agency, those who sparked tension and panic in society by "committing illegality and digging up the burial sites of dead animals" know this well. The agency states that these same people have themselves repeatedly used its service to bury their own deceased animals.

The agency considers the claim that live, specially sedated dogs are placed in the burial site to be slander and calls it complete lies and disinformation. The agency urges citizens to refrain from arbitrarily opening burial sites, removing remains and relocating them. According to the agency, it has applied to law enforcement bodies to investigate the "vandalistic act" committed by a certain group and to take appropriate legal action. It also asks the public not to follow unverified information and to rely only on official, verified information.

Animal advocates are circulating a petition and calling on the Prosecutor's Office to launch an investigation into the footage broadcast by TV Pirveli. The preview of the "Meladze Saturday" program apparently shows how dogs are buried at the Veli cemetery.