9. Russia
Score – 79
With as big as Russia is, you wouldn’t necessarily think it doesn’t really offer protection to animals, especially since it likes to claim it has come a long way in the past several decades. However, the country doesn’t recognize animal sentience and hasn’t shown support for the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.
Russia does have some legislation in place against animal cruelty, covering all animals. The restrictions regarding Article 245 of the Penal Code has some restrictions when it comes to actually being applied, as cruelty is not defined in itself, but rather the end result – injury or death of the animal.
No specific laws are set in place for protecting animals in captivity, pets or farm animals since the law mentioned above covers all categories. Russia does educate its citizens on animal care and protection since biology school studies includes notions about ecology and awareness of various measures for the protection of animals and biological diversity.
