In Arkhangelsk Oblast, a pet boarding facility owned by the Shies landfill’s opponent has burned down. Unknown people had threatened to set it on fire

Anna Stepanova said that the fire in the building had started from the Medvedov Hotel’s sauna, which was located next to the pet boarding facility, in the evening of October 24. According to Stepanova, the firefighting activity took a long time: firefighters left for refueling, which took more than half an hour.

Stepanova's husband managed to pick up dogs, cats and a parrot from the pet boarding facility. They returned the pets that were temporarily in the hotel to their owners and sheltered three dogs and cats with a parrot at their place.

According to the eco-activist, one of the hotel’s rooms has burned to the ground and there is no money to rebuild it. Anna says that during the protests against the construction of the landfill at the Shies station, unknown people threatened to set the pet boarding facility on fire, but she could not believe that someone would endanger the lives of animals.

"It still hurts me to talk about what happened. Everything is burned to the ground; I am staying home with the pets and children. I am left guessing why there was a fire. In Medvedov, everything was rewired, repairs were underway. I hope the authorities find out what caused the incident. I talked to the building’s owner; he will not rebuild it — he will preserve it. We will see where it goes," Anna Stepanova told 7x7.

Her colleagues have announced a fundraiser to rebuild the pet boarding, the card number is 6769 0700 3156 4033 (Tatyana Vladimirovna).

Anna Stepanova is known for her participation in the protests against the construction of a landfill at the Shies station. In September 2021, the Communist Party withdrew the nomination of Anna Stepanova, who was nominated by the party in the elections to the Assembly of Deputies of the Plesetsk district. This happened after Stepanova's husband publicly asked the Communist Party's nominee for the State Duma Nadezhda Vinogradova about her opinion on the landfill at Shies. Vinogradova, who was the regional investment policy commission's member, voted for the Shies Ecotechnopark's inclusion into the list of prior investments projects in 2018.

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