#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In Moscow, at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Geography Institute, scientists and representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North assessed the new rules for registering and marking deer coming into force on March 1. A round table was held on the topic of recording and marking the livestock of domestic reindeer in the context of the burden on the reindeer herding territories’ nature and on the traditional economic activities of indigenous peoples. On March 1, 2024, the article Marking and Registration of Animals of the Russian Federation Law On Veterinary Medicine came into force, as well as the rules for registering animals and the list of animal species subject to individual or group marking and registering.
The Nationalities Affairs Committee, polar explorer and head of a Russian IT company Andrey Igolkin explained how deer will be marked:
“I want to make it clear that the labeling rules are not completely new. Some reindeer herding farms are already using the labeling methods proposed in the law On Veterinary Medicine. The reindeer herder is offered five options. I would like to list them.
Tag. Placed in the middle of the deer’s right ear inside. The height of the characters on the tag is at least 15 millimeters.
Collar, electronic collar. Placed on the animal’s neck.
Electronic tag. Placed in the middle of the deer’s left ear inside.
Implantable microchip. Inserted into the base of the deer’s ear.
Bolus. Injected into the deer’s proventriculus.
As you can see, all the methods are known to our reindeer herders”.
Sergey Sizonenko, vice-president for legal issues of the Association of Indigenous Minorities and the Far East of the Russian Federation added:
“We, representatives of indigenous peoples, argued for a long time about each point of these changes, but we came to the general opinion that certain difficulties of the new labeling are offset by the benefits of the innovations. The new accounting will give the state and regions an accurate understanding of the volume of losses that reindeer herders suffer annually. Now, counting deer will show how much antler raw material there is in the country; slaughtering deer for meat will show how much equally valuable products – deer skins and hair, antlers and a number of raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry – should be put on the market along with the meat”.
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Text: Victor Tsaryov, Photo: Denis Kozhevnikov
