Volunteers asked to rescue dogs from a shelter in Dagestan.

Animal rights activists have published a video depicting the cruel conditions dogs are being kept in at a Derbent shelter. The shelter's administration called the video provocative and untrue.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," in March 2023, Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan Nariman Abdulmutalibov ordered the completion of a shelter for homeless animals in Derbent by summer. Commenters on the VKontakte public page criticized the contractor for having been building the shelter for two years, despite the project's high cost.

A video message from an activist about the deplorable situation of dogs in a Derbent shelter was published by the Instagram* public page derbent.ecolife, which has more than 2 thousand subscribers. By 7:30 a.m., the post had garnered over 1,000 likes and 450 comments.

"Today is January 14th, and this is the Derbent City Shelter. Look at the conditions the puppies are kept in: the enclosures are wet, dirty, there's no hay, and the dogs are freezing. Look what's going on here: the dogs are hungry, the dogs are emaciated. The poor Doberman has been sitting in a cramped cage for a year without a walk," the activist says, photographing the animal enclosures.

A woman walks around a dozen enclosures where dogs are locked up. The footage shows the dogs in wet enclosures without kennels and severely emaciated.

"Why do we need shelters like these? They don't feed them for days. There isn't any food in any of the enclosures. "No kennels, no hay, no warm bedding. Here's a small hungry puppy, here's a Shar Pei like a skeleton," the activist rants in the video.

"Help us, the volunteers" "Dagestan, save these unfortunate animals. Why did they build this shelter in Derbent to abuse puppies and dogs like this? After all, they spend a lot of money on maintaining this shelter, and yet the dogs don't even have food or hay," animal rights activists wrote under the video.

Later, the Derbent shelter for homeless animals partially refuted the information about the dogs' poor living conditions. The refutation was published by the Telegram channel "Kaif Dagestan," which has over 42,000 subscribers. By 7:30 a.m., the post had garnered over 4,000 views.

A shelter representative claims in the published post that the provocative video is not true and was filmed by a former employee who was absent from work for five days.

Social media users reacted skeptically to the refutation.

Subscribers to the rebuttal post expressed the opinion that the shelter's conditions truly leave much to be desired.

"How do people's souls not hurt? I don't understand. Strength, I have always said and will continue to say, is in helping the weak! You don't need much. Feed them and make them warmer. It's not difficult, and it's a plus for karma, and it makes you feel good," wrote Jade Dragon.

"It's all a lie! After the publicity, they covered their tracks, saying everything was wrong. The conditions there are terrible, volunteers were there, they saw this horror and filmed it. And the worker herself says it's a slaughterhouse and a concentration camp for dogs. She tried to convince the workers, but no one listened to her. Now they're throwing smoke in our eyes after complaints!!!!" - Elya was indignant.

"Poor little dogs, I hope they really can come there without warning and bring food," she expressed her wish. Irina NC.

"Put the director and everyone who works there in these cages," she suggested. liana19748880.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that in mid-September 2025, Dagestan law enforcement agencies opened a criminal case against animal rights activist Irina Karpova following a complaint from a man who fatally ran over four puppies with his car in Makhachkala, as she had published the driver's full name, photo, and phone number. Later, Irina Karpova's criminal case was dismissed at the initiative of the prosecutor's office. Karpova believed that the publicity surrounding the situation and her appeal to the head of Dagestan influenced this decision.