Duma rejects idea of overriding Federation Council veto on dog-baiting law, hopes to reach consensus
MOSCOW. Jan 16 (Interfax) - State Duma deputies understand the point of senators' grievances about the bill on the use of dogs in animal baiting and are hoping to get it approved by February 10, Nikolai Nikolayev, who co-chairs the State Duma conciliatory commission and is chairman of the house's Committee on Natural Resources, Property, and Land Relations, said.
Thus, the State Duma will not override the Federation Council's veto of the ban on setting hunting dogs on live animals with physical contact.
The conciliatory commission, whose members represent both the State Duma and the Federation Council, held its first meeting on Tuesday.
"The meeting was very constructive. It is important to understand that when we examine certain differences, it is important to understand their essence. Today's meeting was extremely productive because we understood and heard from the Federation Council the essence of our disagreements," Nikolayev told reporters on Tuesday.
The commission must continue working to clarify the positions that exist today, he said.
Its next meeting will be next week, he said.
"By then, we need to spell out signs of activity that would fully exclude contact baiting, signs of the activity which must be banned, which involves cruel treatment, and we must also conduct two more expert meetings: on the training of hunting birds and on hole-digging dogs," Nikolayev said.
The commission will work until February 10, and "I am very hopeful that by then, we will have finished our work and reached consensus, because I think there should be no delay, because this is a much-awaited law," Nikolayev said.
Earlier, Andrei Isayev, first deputy head of United Russia's Duma faction, did not rule out the possibility of the State Duma overriding the Federation Council's veto.