Of all the places one does not want to end up, especially now, a Russian maximum-security prison might be it.
Not only are the prisons located in the coldest parts of the country, but they are guarded by two brutal animals, sadistic Russian guards and Russian prison dogs.
Dogs that guard Russian prisons are real beasts bred to be aggressive toward humans. Google them and look at the pictures. Better yet, check out a video, it’s easy to find. See: youtu.be/PvzBMq5GPes.
These are huge animals that are breed identified as Caucasian shepherds or Ovcharka. Originally, they were an agricultural protective breed used to protect domestic animals and people from things like, oh you know, Siberian tigers, brown bears and carnivorous dinosaurs.
Over time, the breed has been bred to be incredibly large, intimidating and vicious when trained/tortured for use in Russian prisons. Conformationally, they still look like an oversized, cuddly stuffed prize no one wins at the carnival dime toss.
Functionally, they have jaws and a bite strength resembling that of a dire wolf crossed with a wood chipper. Most are cream-colored with dark black fur interspersed and often a white chest. At the shoulder, some 30 inches, they are hip-high to a tall person. They often tip the scales at 220 pounds or more. Their head, when the fur is fluffed, couldn’t fit in a bushel basket.
One video shows an Ovcharka playing four-way tug-of-war with three, full-grown rottweilers. Guess which ones are being dragged around the pen like they are already dead?
A giant breed, they may live 10 to 12 years but often die sooner. They are susceptible to such maladies as hip dysplasia, bloat, cataracts, and kneecaps that slide out of their anatomic groove. Great, just what one wants … a bloated, half-blind, arthritic killer that can crush a person’s femur on first bite.
They eat. A lot. And what goes in must come out. As you know, a properly fed dog that size has to make a sizeable deposit about four times a day. One might think of it this way: Every day, invite a corps of four college linebackers to your house to drop the same in your yard. I think you get the picture. Keep a shovel and separate, heavy metal trash can handy.
Of course, there is a subset of people who like such things and God bless them. They may have the patience and dedication to turn them into the big fluffy stuffed toy referred to above. There are plenty of examples of those online, too. While I do not condemn any specific breed as being all bad, I do condemn the same breed of animals being used and misused in Russian prisons and on military installations.
Still the animal is known for its fighting intelligence, independence and protective nature. I got my first sight of these dogs about a decade ago in a National Geographic Television documentary on Russian supermax prisons. An internet search turned up even more vicious members of the breed.
Two thoughts came to mind at the time: Big dogs used aggressively like this, to, shall we say, take out the trash in a Russian prison are not going to last long before they are arthritic, incapacitated and probably fed to their kennel mates.
Second, for all that is happening with them in Russia, there are probably people doing worse in the underground world of dog fighting. For some sick reason, people have sent along videos of various breeds involved in blood sports perhaps to shock me when instead they galvanized my opinions about animal cruelty.
Powell is the public information officer for the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, which provides this column as a community service. For questions or concerns about animals you’d like to read about, email cpowell@vetmed.wsu.edu.
