Animal rights activist in Dagestan under investigation after publication about driver who killed dogs

Law enforcement agencies in Dagestan have opened a criminal case against animal rights activist Irina Karpova following a complaint from a man who ran over four puppies to death with his car in Makhachkala.

The puppies were hit in July, four of whom died. Footage from the scene that was shared on social media shows a car making a gentle turn in an open area. There are a group of animals lying on the ground, and the driver has the opportunity to go around them, but instead runs right over the puppies. One of the puppies manages to jump out from under the wheels, while the others remain lying on the ground.

The criminal case against Irina Karpova was announced on September 10. The woman was accused of disclosing personal data (Part 1 of Article 272.1 of the Russian Criminal Code provides for up to four years of imprisonment or forced labor), since after hitting the puppies she published the full name of the car driver, his photo and phone number.

"The man reported to the police that after the incident with the puppies she published his photo, phone number, address, as a result of which he began to receive insults and threats," RIA Novosti quotes a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan as saying.

Irina Karpova herself confirmed that she was notified of the initiation of a criminal case and was summoned for questioning to the Kirov District Police Department of Makhachkala. The animal shelter that Karpova organized at her own expense currently houses the only puppy that survived the incident, named Daphne; the other four died.

The driver, on whose complaint the case against the activist was opened, gave an explanation to the police in July in connection with the collision with the animals. A video of the 32-year-old man's explanation was published on July 24 in her Telegram channel "Criminal Chronicle" by the head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan Gayana Gariyeva.

"When leaving the parking lot, I did not notice these puppies, since they were in the blind spot. I love animals and regret what happened," the driver of the Kia Rio says in the recording. At the same time, Gariyeva noted that the man's explanation does not stand up to criticism. "Either he did not see the video that others saw, or he has a poor idea of what a blind spot is and where it is," she wrote, adding a diagram of a car's blind spots to the video for clarity.

At the same time, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that "the police have collected material" on the fact of the collision with the puppies and that "the man's actions contain signs of a crime" - cruelty to animals (Article 245 of the Criminal Code of Russia). Nevertheless, law enforcement agencies reported that a criminal case based on the collected materials had indeed been opened.

The republican media repeatedly reported on the Verny Drug shelter, which Irina Karpova organized with her own funds, in 2025. At the beginning of the year, the Kaspiysk administration discussed the issue of building a building for the shelter - the authorities agreed to allocate a plot of land, but for the construction, as Karpova herself noted, the help of patrons is needed, the Sreda TV channel reported on February 7. And on September 8, the RGVK “Dagestan” published a report on the work of the shelter, including mentioning the dog Daphne, who was saved from being run over by a car in a resonant video.

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