Concerns are mounting across Georgia as animal rights defenders have raised alarms over “disappearing” street dogs in what authorities claim to be temporary transfers to carry out “veterinary manipulations” to manage the hyperpopulation of homeless animals aimed to protect both animals and humans.
Fears intensified after local activists first reported a raid in Zugdidi, Western Georgia, where the National Food Agency (NFA) collected dozens of dogs, saying they were only temporarily transferred to a shelter in Kutaisi as part of the newly-launched state program. Later, further alarms were raised after residents in Gori, Eastern Georgia, spotted smoke at a local state shelter, fearing that stray dogs had been brought there and cremated. Public agencies have dismissed cremation reports as a lie.
Homeless dogs and cats, numbering in the tens of thousands in Georgia, have long been a public concern. Sterilization and vaccination are widely accepted as methods to control breeding and reduce street populations, though activists, animal lovers, and rights organizations say the animals must not be euthanized for that purpose. In 2025, the NFA reported treating 9,136 animals as part of a pilot program in several regions.
The newly approved 2026 state program allocates more than GEL 4.6 million to “identify, sterilize, castrate, and vaccinate” homeless dogs and cats. A controversial clause in the decree prohibits returning dogs to areas near educational institutions, medical facilities, public catering establishments, markets, hotels, and children’s or sports playgrounds. While the decree notes that alternative release locations “must be changed,” it does not specify where the animals should be relocated, which animal rights defenders say is “not only vague – failing to specify the proximity in question – but also lacks clear meaning,” raising fears it could enable euthanasia or unsafe releases.
Activists, however, note that dogs have been disappearing before the controversial clause took effect, and are collected from territories that are not yet covered by the pilot state program.
On March 30, dozens of homeless dogs were taken from the streets of Zugdidi, a town in western Georgia, to Kutaisi for what the authorities said were veterinary procedures as part of the program. The activists said some of the dogs taken had already been vaccinated and sterilized. On April 1, after public alarms, NFA said 28 of them were returned “to the environment,” but activists said the dogs were released outside the town, near a highway, instead of the town where they had been originally picked up.
Zero Strays Georgia, a non-profit animal organization, published a video showing residents of Zugdidi arriving to retrieve the dogs in what appears to be a sparsely populated area. The organization warned that releasing animals outside their home range, in uninhabited areas with scarce food and highway traffic, amounts to a “slow, painful death.” NFA said the remaining dogs will also be returned “to the environment” after “necessary veterinary manipulations” without specifying where.
Local activists, including Salome Partsvania, who documented footage of dogs confined in cages inside transport vehicles when they were first taken, noted uncertainty about when they would be returned. Partsvania cited a woman accompanying the state raid, reportedly saying the animals would be “released into nature.”
Thousands of activists, citizens, and more than 40 animal rights organizations issued a joint statement demanding that dogs be returned to the exact locations from which they were taken and that caretakers be notified in advance. The statement also demanded that authorities carry out revaccination on-site rather than transferring already treated animals to shelters. Parallel concerns have been reported in Kakheti and Imereti, and some cases reportedly involved sheltered dogs taken from children during walks.
Concerns further intensified after animal rights defender Tamaz Elizbarashvili’s Facebook page on April 1 published a video in which a woman, crying in a car, recorded what she said was smoke continuing for hours to rise from the premises of the Gori state shelter. She said dogs were brought to the building around midnight and the smoke smelled like hair and flesh, prompting fears that animals had been cremated.
The NFA dismissed accusations that dogs were burned as “totally ungrounded” and “fake,” saying, “The spread of lies of this nature crosses all moral boundaries and represents a deliberate attempt to mislead the public.” The agency added, however, that the “incinerator” on the premises is legally used “to dispose of medical waste and deceased animals from veterinary care and related tests of shelter animals as part of infection prevention measures.”
The statement also noted that the overpopulation management program has so far been launched on a pilot basis in Imereti, Kakheti, and Zugdidi Municipality. It added that the agency “is gradually returning dogs taken from these locations to areas adjacent to where they were picked up.” It added that animals taken from schools, kindergartens, and hospitals are instead relocated away from their original sites.
The developments follow protest demonstrations over the past weekend in Tbilisi and Batumi, as protesters alleged the cases of “euthanasia” and rallied against the practice of taking the dogs from the streets. Following the recent reports, a rally has been planned for April 4 in Tbilisi and Batumi.
Facing accusations, Tengiz Chaligava, deputy head of the National Food Agency’s Animal Health Department, said that information about any dog being transferred will now be posted in advance on social media and that everyone will know beforehand where dogs will receive vaccinations, castrations, or sterilizations.
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