Russian festival for pets

On 4 June the international forum Zoo Russia 2005 opened in the “Crocus Expo” exhibition centre in Moscow. Guests of honour welcomed the forum participants on behalf of the Moscow municipal Duma and 10 million Muscovites, wishing health to the pets and their owners and peace and well-being to their families. Visitors and participants in the forum were greeted by an interesting, in-depth programme: traditional cat and dog shows, a grooming competition, pet fashion shows, agility, performances of the Russian “Mini-pig” club and piglet racing. The organisers have invented a new sport for the cheerful piglets – last year’s favourites – piglet football. The organisers have invented a new sport for the piglets: piglet football. Pet enthusiasts, the numbers of which are increasing every year, gathered in the exhibition grounds. The forum attracts growing attention from manufacturers and importers of a broad spectrum of pet products, pet food and veterinary supplies, toys and collars, shampoos, protective equipment and other goods manufactured by pet product enterprises. The dog show attracted more than 1 500 canine specialists from Russia, Latvia, Scotland and other countries, while the exhibition of cats featured over 300 cats of 20 breeds, which were judged for the first time by leading experts from Europe. The business part of the exhibition was devoted to discussion of essential problems of the industry. A forum of businesses involved in the pet product industry took place, along with seminars and round table discussions to assist the participants and experts in their examination of changes and amendments to the current legislation, particular issues of veterinary licensing, supervisory bodies, the organisation of pet business activity, and many other problems. The speech of Ivan Rozhdestvensky, head of the veterinary supervision department of Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service, provoked the greatest interest. He clarified the position of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation regarding the issues most vital to businesses: the registration of foods, medical products for animals and food additives, as well as the creation of technical rules. The most important companies from the Russian pet trade were exhibiting at Zoo Russia 2005. Narine Bagmanyan, the president of the exhibition company “Asti Group”, expressed her hope that each participant and visitor at the forum had found everything they were…