Mass animal deaths in fields: has the problem been solved in Russia?

It is unfortunate that amidst all the "social upheavals," information about the extinction of living species is completely obscured. This is happening right now on a devastating scale. As you know, for several consecutive years in Russia, animals have been dying en masse: fields have been littered with the bodies of animals and birds. Thousands of dead were found by people "on the spot," while the real scale of the catastrophe is unknown to anyone.

Yesterday, in my article, we discussed the problem of bee extinction — a leading regulator of the ecological state of wildlife. Horrifying reports about what is happening right now! The picture is clear, and many readers, despite media publications, were unaware of this.

Many have decided that the problem disappeared long ago and that bees have stopped dying out. Almost no one knows that the situation has spiraled out of control and worsened. The issue lies in the relevance of search algorithms: neural networks integrated into search systems now provide only "necessary" information from the authorities' perspective. This information is political, social, and everything else is deliberately "suppressed."

Now I want to tell you about animal extinction. I came across an interesting scientific study on this topic, and I understand that the authorities will ignore it! Therefore, the only hope is that people will read and spread it.

Let's first recall the animal deaths and what is happening.

Mass extinction of species began to gain momentum around 2021, when the media were literally flooded with reports of dead animals found in agricultural fields. The problem continued to escalate, and by 2022 and 2023, there were so many cases that even the Federation Council had to pay attention. For example, in the winter of 2022-2023 alone, 10,767 animals and birds were found in the Stavropol Territory, their bodies literally covering the fields!

When the scandal reached the state level and was discussed in the State Duma and the Federation Council, agrarians (big business) began to collect and burn or bury the animal carcasses with trembling hands. Reports of this came repeatedly.

The real scale of animal deaths is unknown to anyone. We are only talking about those animals that were found in the fields! How many were "buried and burned" — no one knows, nor how many poisoned animals went into the forests. How many more died and will continue to die along the food chain?

There is no such data. No one is conducting it.

In 2023, the Russian Hunting and Fishing Union demanded that the government tighten legislation on the use of pesticides in agriculture. We also sent requests to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and the State Duma to expedite this process. However, the bureaucratic system is heavy and cumbersome, working extremely slowly! The first changes are only now beginning to appear.

Incidentally, the Russian Hunting and Fishing Union announced the estimated damage from the mass animal deaths. In the Stavropol Territory alone, the damage was estimated at no less than 92 million rubles. Moreover, the organization reported continuous dismissals from state agencies regarding demands to tighten Russian legislation.

I would like to note that we also regularly receive dismissals. But THAT'S HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS — they are literally obliged to issue a dismissal to society on any request and say that everything is fine. However, it is necessary to understand that requests must still be made because the main task is to create the necessary pressure "from the ground" so that it reaches key government figures. Despite the dismissals, through collective public work, we managed to stop three major legislative projects aimed at exterminating wild animals just in the summer of 2024.

In 2023, we managed to reach the government together. Meetings were held in the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management, as well as in the relevant State Duma committees. Legislative measures have already been adopted to tighten the use of pesticides in the fields!

However, these measures are only being introduced, the system is dragging, pondering, resisting. Moreover, all the measures being introduced are aimed at the future use of pesticides and do not solve the problem of species reduction right here and now!

There is no assessment of the losses of the animal world and the impact of mass deaths on the further reproduction of populations. There are no state measures to restore lost ecosystems and help wildlife, no one is even close to dealing with this.

The guilty parties, by the way, were also "not found." The head of the Department for the Protection of Wildlife Objects of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Stavropol Territory, Evgeny Gusev, told journalists that those responsible for the animal deaths were not found.

Well, how can they search for themselves, right? The entire agricultural business is closely connected with the authorities — it is one of the most profitable sectors in the southern regions of the country.

Now that we have analyzed what has been happening for several years, let's discuss the causes and turn to a new scientific study to operate in our fight for Life with real objective data.

Mass animal deaths, including insects (including bees), are caused by the uncontrolled use of pesticides in agriculture. For several consecutive years, abnormal heat, drought, and a decrease in groundwater levels have been observed. You probably remember reports that even the mighty Siberian rivers were rapidly drying up! I previously published footage of the Yenisei, which literally exposed the riverbed in many places.

This led to the drying up of forest crops, the absence of a food base in the wild, and hunger for animals. Forest fires, the strongest in recorded history, were also observed.

Climate anomalies lead to animal hunger and changes in species composition in ecosystems. For example, some insect species suddenly become very numerous, while others lose their population and begin to die out.

In their natural state, the biogeocenoses of the Russian taiga and forests are capable of defending themselves against any climatic changes. For example, the forest adapts to heat, accumulates more moisture, and, accordingly, fills rivers with water, as well as all local and global terrestrial ecosystems.

However, since people mercilessly destroy and exploit wildlife, the immune system of ecosystems is primarily disrupted. We deprive them of protection, do not allow them to adapt and recover, while demanding more and more resources from them. This leads to the degradation of wildlife and the suppression of biological diversity.

Due to the lack of food, animals massively go to agricultural fields in search of any food. In turn, businesses begin to import as many pesticides as possible and scatter them in the fields, poisoning insects.

On these same fields, flocks of migratory birds rest, eating poisoned insects and dying on the spot from deadly poisons. Their bodies are eaten by larger animals — predators. Naturally, all die along the food chain: from the smallest insects to large mammals.

But the problem is even deeper: businesses import dangerous counterfeit chemicals, using any, including completely banned poisons. All these poisons accumulate in the products grown in these fields. Thus, agricultural products saturated with poisons are supplied to the average consumer's table both within our country (to us) and for export to other countries.

Hence — chronic severe diseases and an increase in cancer, confirmed by scientific data. State agencies officially declare this, as I wrote in the article about the mass death of bees!

The authorities are now aiming to "solve the problem of counterfeit poisons." This course is completely wrong: it does not solve any problems but only exacerbates their consequences.

The fact is that the authorities are trying to solve the problem of the instant death of animals in agricultural fields. Their main task is to ensure that animals do not convulse to death from numerous internal hemorrhages in the fields. Instead, they leave slow-acting poisons and contraceptive poisons (blocking further reproduction of animals).

In this case, wild animals receive a dose of poison and die "somewhere out there." A hare will hide in a burrow and die there, remaining unnoticed, migratory birds will fall dead during their flight across the ocean, a fox, having feasted on a mouse, will die in the forest under a log.

THERE WILL BE NO VISIBLE PROBLEMS! AND THE CONSEQUENCES FOR ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS WILL BE EVEN MORE SEVERE.

For this material, I turned to scientific research by world scientists. I want to start with a graph, translated from English by my editorial team for you! This graph was officially prepared and published by the US National Park Service. There, too, mass animal deaths from poison use are observed.

On this graph, you see how wild animals die along the food chain. It provides information only on rodenticides used to poison mice. A simple and understandable scheme, confirmed by scientific research, shows how the death of other species begins from the smallest animals (rodents) up the food chain.

We are talking about anticoagulant rodenticides that block blood clotting in animals. The scientific study I examined is called "A Global Review of the Impact of Anticoagulant Rodenticides on Wild Carnivores." It was conducted by scientists in 2024, so the data is extremely relevant.

Here's what scientists say.

In the USA, special black boxes are actively used to combat rats and mice, into which only target species (rodents) can enter. This was done to avoid the death of large animals.

But it turned out that this does NOT work because ultimately all species of animals up the food chain still die. While scientists tried to document the effects of poisons on different species, many of them were already dead. Specialists identified a sharp cascading extinction of almost all animal species, including lynxes, foxes, and weasels. Poisons were found in the liver tissues of all dead animals.

The scheme is simple: a mouse eats poisoned food but does not die immediately and goes into the wild. The poison begins to cause internal bleeding and tissue damage; at this point, the mouse becomes sluggish, its immune system does not work. Many rodents, on this background, begin to suffer from various dangerous diseases, as the immune system cannot provide a normal response.

A sluggish mouse is eaten by predatory birds and mammals, they receive a dose of poison and die in agony! Moreover, scientists recorded many diseases that are instantly transmitted to other animal species and infect entire populations, leading to further species extinction.

Scientists claim that the situation is so critical that there is a rapid decline in local predator populations. The study lists 34 species that were exposed to "rodent poisons." These include weasels, members of the dog family, foxes, stoats, ferrets, red foxes, all wild cats, and other carnivorous animal species. Scientists also found these poisons for the first time even in predators like river otters, which usually feed only on river inhabitants.

Wolves also do not eat mice, but they were on the list of the dead! Scientists tracked animal deaths along the food chain and found that poisoning occurs through several species simultaneously: a mouse was eaten by an owl, the owl was eaten by a raccoon, the raccoon was eaten by a wolf — all species are dead.

This phenomenon in the scientific community is called bioaccumulation.

What else do scientists say?

I thoroughly studied their scientific work. Scientists refer to numerous scientific data from other studies confirming the mass extinction of wildlife "up the food chain." However, this is not considered legislatively! Almost all research on this topic has been conducted only in Europe and the USA, and there is data from specialists in Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, in Russia, as well as in Asian, African, and South American countries, where the largest number of carnivorous animal species are concentrated, there are no such studies.

Scientists note in their study that other specialists and nature defenders do not fully understand the impact of these poisons. The problem is much more global than is commonly believed!

I separately studied data on the use of these anticoagulant rodenticides worldwide and found that the situation is only getting worse. I managed to find a scientific report titled "Anticoagulant Rodenticides Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Application, Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022–2030."

According to scientists, the use of these poisons will only increase in the coming years, leading to the extinction of many animal species worldwide.

Here is an excerpt from the scientific report:

"The market growth is expected to be driven by the increasing rodent population, rising incidence of rodent-related diseases, and increased demand for rodent control products. The market is extremely competitive due to the presence of numerous manufacturers combined with the growing demand for products that help in rodent control from key application industries, including household, pest control, agriculture, and others."

CONCLUSIONS

The situation with animal extinction from poisons in the fields remains unchanged. Legislative measures are introduced only concerning the use of fast-acting and counterfeit poisons, but no one considers the impact of all other poisons on biological diversity.

We reviewed a real scientific study with data on rodent poisons. This does not take into account the use of all other poisons that actively "fertilize" agricultural lands.

I can confidently say that we see attempts to "smooth over" public outcry due to mass animal deaths in the fields. But if animals die en masse "somewhere out there," no one cares!

At the government level, three things are necessary:

1. Complete accounting and assessment of the impact of poisons on ALL POPULATIONS of wildlife inhabiting areas of industrial agriculture. Not just legislative projects are needed, but also the full restoration of lost ecosystems, a moratorium on sport hunting, and strict control over the state of wildlife.

2. Only scientific analysis of the problem using all available research from scientists today is necessary. All data should be taken, combined, special commissions should be assembled in regions, and efforts should be made jointly, with federal SPECIAL powers, to find comprehensive solutions to all problems.

3. URGENCY. We already see that even legislative work to tighten control over the use of poisons takes YEARS! And action is needed URGENTLY because animal populations, including KEY SPECIES, are dying right now.

But none of this exists. Legislation does not solve these tasks!

Moreover: the authorities simply replace fast-acting poisons with slow-acting ones, wild animals manage to leave the fields and will die in agony for days. Somewhere out there, far from us. 

© PAVEL PASHKOV