In the Russian Far East, tigers are being caught using live dogs: how monstrously degraded the nature protection system has become

In the Russian Far East, the problem of starving tigers coming out to people in search of food continues. Let me remind you that the situation is not improving; we have been speaking about this problem for many years and have proposed real mechanisms for solving it to the state. But so far, everything is only getting worse. The fact is that tiger habitat has been destroyed, forests have been divided among private individuals for the organization of paid recreational killings (sport hunting) and logging. In addition, the forests were cleared of wild boars under the pretext of fighting “African swine fever,” even though wild boars are part of the tiger’s food base. Cedar and oak forests are being cut down. In short, nothing but disasters for wildlife and, as a consequence, starving tigers coming out to people. In recent years, predators have learned to pull dogs off chains in villages: people leave their pets outside in kennels in freezing temperatures, and for tigers this is a way to get food and avoid starving to death in the wild.

I will also quote the publication Parlamentskaya Gazeta — the official periodical of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, founded by the State Duma and the Federation Council. This is what they wrote in 2025.

“Hundreds of cases of predator attacks on people and domestic animals were recorded in 2024 in the Russian Far East. Red Book Amur tigers are approaching humans because their food base has declined, while the animals that striped cats feed on in the wild themselves now have almost nothing left to eat, and people are to blame for all of it. They build new roads, carry out uncontrolled logging, and collect nuts on a massive scale, leaving animals with nothing to eat.”

Thus, tigers, of which only about 750 individuals remain in our country, are, in essence, becoming synanthropic — that is, living near people and dependent on humans. And this problem was officially confirmed by the federal government last year; in fact, everything we had been saying was voiced publicly in Moscow and confirmed. But no actual solution has followed.

And do you know what officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources are doing in the Russian Far East? They are catching starving tigers using dogs terrified to death inside cages. They simply take a cage, put dogs inside, and begin luring tigers out of the wild.

This method of tiger capture became known last year after a scandal, when people filmed a frightened, trembling dog sitting in the cold waiting for a tiger. But this year, in April 2026, things became even worse — apparently, these “nanotechnologies” were decided to be put into official service within the Ministry of Natural Resources and used on a permanent basis.

So, readers are sending me information that in the Russian Far East not only is “catching a tiger with live bait” being practiced using frightened dogs in cages, but people who speak about it are also being threatened.

I will publish the full text of the eyewitness account:

“The Hunting Supervision Service of Primorsky Krai is catching tigers using live dogs. Residents of the villages are dissatisfied with the work of the Hunting Supervision Service. Animal defenders are sounding the alarm, and they are being threatened.

A week ago, a video filmed in the village of Venevitinovo in Primorsky Krai spread through social media. It shows that in a tiger trap built from branches, a dog is tied to a tree. According to a female eyewitness, a puppy had been kept in this trap for about two weeks, barking frantically day and night. Residents of the villages of Nezhino and Venevitinovo confirm these facts and say that this has been happening for a long time, that many such traps have been set up there, and that in the evenings the Hunting Supervision Service brings live dogs there, using them as bait for the tiger. Only one trap has a small iron cage, which by its characteristics would not save the dog. In the other traps, dogs are simply tied to a tree.

Local residents, although living in fear because of tigers visiting their villages, still do not intend to tolerate cruelty toward animals. They are also dissatisfied with the work of the Hunting Supervision Service and consider branch traps with a live dog inside to be not only cruel but also ineffective, because the Hunting Supervision Service leaves these traps unattended for periods of time, while a tiger may be caught in a steel trap, injured, or, moreover, break loose from the snare while wounded. In such a condition, it poses an even greater threat.

The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation does not officially permit the use of live dogs as bait for catching tigers. The use of dogs for these purposes is considered animal cruelty (Article 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In cases where Hunting Supervision specialists or other persons use dogs as bait, checks are carried out by law enforcement authorities.

In 2024, Sergey Aramilev, Director General of the Amur Tiger Center, had already commented on the shocking case of a dog being used as bait for a tiger in the settlement of Plastun in Primorsky Krai, where he noted that using a live dog as bait is dangerous both for the animal and for local residents, and also constitutes a violation.

On 14.04.2026, in response to a question from animal defenders on VK regarding the cruel treatment of a bait dog, the Ministry of Natural Resources of Primorsky Krai replied: “...as Hunting Supervision specialists explained, at present the cage with the dog is absent from the indicated location, and there is no threat to the dog’s life.”

Yes, after the public outcry on social media, the Hunting Supervision Service removed the dogs from the traps, but on 15.04.2026 it was observed that the cage still remained in place and, moreover, fresh hay and various bowls continue to appear in it, apparently prepared for the next canine victim.

Animal defenders visit these places in order to prevent unlawful actions by the Hunting Supervision Service and protect the dogs, and for this they have begun receiving threats.”

The people who reported this began to be intimidated by unknown individuals and threatened with violence. Local residents are publishing screenshots online; I will not repost them because of the huge amount of obscene abuse, but people are genuinely being intimidated simply for trying to speak about the problem.

As you can see, everything is very serious — they are acting aggressively, anything to keep people from finding out. Yet this practice has become permanent; it is now something the system carries out fully at an official level. Some launch spacecraft to the Moon with astronauts, some develop modern technologies for the evolution of humanity, while we, it turns out, are catching starving tigers with live dogs in cages. And at the same time we continue destroying their habitat, literally tearing wildlife apart. To the point that this same Ministry of Natural Resources is right now promoting bills that would legalize the direct destruction of protected areas in the interests of big business.

The Hunting Supervision Service referred to in people’s statements is a subordinate body directly answerable to the Ministry of Natural Resources. And it is precisely the federal agency that must regulate the issue of conflict situations involving tigers, oversee the resolution of the problem, convene scientific commissions, and launch programs to restore predator habitat. And, of course, it must integrate modern technologies that have long been used successfully around the world to protect tigers and other large predators.

But here, people are showered with filthy abuse simply because they tried to express the view that the practice of “catching a tiger with live bait” is unacceptable. That is how we live, apparently.

I want to quote the federal publication Arguments and Facts, when this madness was first exposed last year. Journalists wrote:

“In Primorye, apparently, a scandal is flaring up because of a video published on one of the social networks. The footage shows a dog locked in a cage in one of the outlying districts of the city of Dalnerechensk. Residents assumed that the animal was being used as bait to capture a tiger. The video drew the attention of the police, and, as reported by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ‘Dalnerechensky,’ an inspection has been launched into the matter. The information was also confirmed by the Telegram channel ‘Police of Primorye.’

Meanwhile, a photo of the same dog in the cage appeared on the official Telegram channel of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Primorsky Krai, ‘MinPrirody25.’ Representatives of the hunting supervision authorities urged citizens not to interfere in the predator capture process. According to the ministry, measures are continuing in the territory of the Dalnerechensk urban district to search for a tiger that had previously been seen in the microdistricts of Kamenushka and Grafskoye. A specially trained service dog is involved in the operation, and, according to ministry representatives, there is no threat to its life or health.”

As you can see, the authorities are fully aware of the problem and justify it by claiming that this “specially trained service dog,” which in the video is literally terrified to death and sitting there trembling, is a special mechanism for catching synanthropic tigers in the wild. And the police conducted an inspection, but nothing changed at all. And what would change? People say — and I cannot verify this information — but they insist that the authorities allocate millions of rubles to fight the “tiger threat.” If that is true, then the fines for a dog, even if the Ministry of Internal Affairs finds signs of crimes, are negligible — literally pennies. No one will do anything.

Last year, we also sent statements to the authorities, but this is simply an impenetrable system of governance that does things which defy even the most elementary logic — because we live in a modern and supposedly civilized society. I repeat: what are we even talking about if the Ministry of Natural Resources itself is lobbying for the destruction of protected areas in the country? Of course they will catch tigers using live dogs. I have no doubt.

Next, another quote from the Arguments and Facts material:

“Let us recall that in the summer of last year, residents of Primorye were outraged by a so-called tiger ‘trap’ involving the use of an animal in the settlement of Plastun behind the Shpon plant. At that time, unknown persons also tied a dog as bait for the predator. According to eyewitnesses, the dog had been tied there for more than a week under the sun and rain, without shelter.

It now seems obvious that such inhumane treatment of pets is approved at the level of the regional government. The ministry’s Telegram channel openly writes: ‘Tiger catchers have dogs with whose help more than one tiger has been caught.’ And, apparently, this is not about dogs that track the beast’s trail, but about those that serve as bait for predators.”

Everyone understands this, and journalists from the federal media are right to say that this inhumane treatment is approved at the level of the regional government. They are only mistaken in pointing solely to local officials: if the federal agency is not interested in solving the problem of Red Book animals coming to people out of hunger, the problem begins there.

Now, as I understand it, catching tigers with live bait is a permanent and actively used practice in our country. Moreover, officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources themselves previously said that during the capture period, residents should keep their animals indoors so that the tiger would come specifically to the capture site and fall into the trap; it was also claimed there that tiger catchers have dogs with whose help “more than one tiger has been caught.”

But this has become possible only now, when governance has degraded completely. Everything has been ruined and looted, and they have no idea what to do with the problems. Because, let me remind you, in 2021 public comments stated that live dogs were not used as bait; it was also said then that if the situation deteriorated so badly that it came to that, the dog would have to be kept in a secure cage, and inspectors would have to remain nearby constantly in order to immobilize the tiger as it approached.

I will quote another federal publication, this one from RIA Novosti in 2021:

“According to him, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when capturing tigers, cages were used into which a live dog was placed as bait.

‘But in this case, not cages are being used, but special traps, without live animals. Although there are residents who go to the capture sites and touch the traps, leaving a scent and disturbing the structure of the traps. But the tiger is an intelligent and resourceful beast, and if it sees that people have been there, it will not approach the trap,’ the source told the agency, adding that if the situation continued to worsen, ‘the use of a live dog is possible.’

‘But in that case, the dog will be kept in a secure cage, the inspectors will remain nearby the whole time in order to immobilize the tiger as it approaches. And for these purposes, the dog of the inspector will be used, someone who will be interested in not falling asleep and staying vigilant,’ the source clarified.”

That is to say, at the end of the last century they used live dogs, whereas we all know: modern technologies did not exist then, the internet was only just appearing, and there were no GPS trackers or drones either. And yet in 2021 we were told that this was used only back then, and that now under no circumstances were live dogs being placed in cages to catch tigers. And if they ever were used, it would only be with specialists present and only if the situation deteriorated to such an extent that such measures became unavoidable.

And now people come, see dogs trembling with fear, and no specialists nearby. So has the situation deteriorated so much that we no longer have any specialists at all, and now, as at the end of the last century, despite all evolution and technological development, we are catching starving tigers with dogs?

So just how badly has the situation deteriorated? And why are real problems not being solved?

Our specialists in this country have precise instructions on how they are supposed to act, and huge federal funds were allocated for this over decades. Where is the money? Where is the equipment? Where are the scientific experts? What is going on?

In a conflict situation, special groups are supposed to go to the site, patrol the area, set camera traps, and use deterrence. For years, we were told that they had off-road vehicles, shift transport, thermal imagers, quadcopters, night vision devices, and noise and light special equipment. If deterrence does not help, then with permission from Rosprirodnadzor, capture is carried out using remote injectors and cages for transporting wild animals. After removal, the tiger is examined in a rehabilitation center and, if healthy, moved farther away from people to a place with a sufficient food base. That is what a normal, professional, technological scheme looks like.

What follows is something that in a normal system is not even discussed as an “option,” but is considered mandatory. After release, the animal is tracked using GPS collars, camera traps, field verification of GPS location clusters, as well as genetic analysis of samples. In Russian tiger research programs, which I personally studied many years ago, the creation of photo-identification databases and molecular-genetic and hormonal studies is described, while official publications on releases repeatedly indicated that tigers were subsequently monitored using GPS collars and camera traps. Scientific literature on large cats adds that camera traps are one of the main and most widespread methods of individual identification of spotted and striped predators, while new computer vision tools are already helping automatically recognize Amur tigers by their stripe patterns: for example, the ATRW dataset contains more than 8 thousand video clips from 92 Amur tigers.

So where is all of this? Where is the entire technological chain for which huge amounts of budget money were allocated? We do not see any real specialized professionals, any technical means, or any functioning system for monitoring and preventing conflicts.

What we do see are dogs terrified to death, sitting and trembling with fear in cramped cages in the cold, placed there by representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources as they try to catch starving synanthropic tigers. Why should we, the citizens of this country, have to explain this to the RELEVANT FEDERAL AGENCY?!!

In the summer of 2024, in Plastun, a pregnant dog was found chained inside a wooden structure with foothold traps at the entrances. The police opened an investigation, and the prosecutor’s office launched a separate review over the possible dismissal of the person who circulated the video. I should also note that in Plastun the police recorded reports of a dog being kept chained for a week without water or food; in Dalnerechensk, residents spoke of an animal in a cramped cage without water or feed; and in the 2026 case, eyewitnesses claimed that a puppy had sat in one of the traps for up to two weeks. If even half of this information is confirmed, then we are already talking about deliberate mockery of common sense and real TORTURE of animals.

I do not know what else to add. We are now urgently preparing additional appeals to the authorities and will try once again to influence the situation. I also remind you that we are planning to launch a full-scale project to defend Russia’s tigers — we need to try to advance concrete proposals within the government and achieve a real solution to these deeply systemic problems. For now, we do not have enough resources; we should have launched the project a month ago. This must be done.

I ask everyone to spread this material — pass it on, tell the truth, be the voice of the Russian Taiga. There is no one else. Fight for Life.

© PAVEL PASHKOV