For over a year, Georgians have been protesting against Georgian Dream and for Georgia’s European future every day on Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli Avenue and beyond. During this time, one thing easy to notice at the protests are the many dogs who frequent those protests.
Dogs appeared during riot police dispersals back in November–December, when the daily protests started after the announcement that Georgia would be halting its bid to join the EU.
Since then, they started to come to the protests every day. However it wasn’t as simple as this, as some of these dogs were punished for frequenting the protests.
The repressions against the dogs happened in waves. In spring, a lot of dogs were taken by municipal animal monitoring service, which caused a chilling result for the dogs and their carers.
I had a favourite. I’d call her Bear, cause she was this massive animal, the most beautiful dog I’ve ever seen. She charmed everyone who saw her. She’d see the march coming from the Georgian Public Broadcaster, and she’d come jumping on her enormous paws running into the crowd to receive pats, which would never stop until the protest ends She lived in the neighbourhood where I lived back then, so I’d see her during the day chilling on Aghmashenebeli Avenue in the sun, and then later see her back at the protest in the centre of everyone’s attention.
But she disappeared and never returned. Skelo, another protest favourite who spent many years at protests, disappeared around the same time and never returned.
Some others had better luck. Archil, also known as Nodar, one of the biggest troublemakers of all of them, survived the purge, being sheltered by people in the neighbourhood of Vera, where he continues living his happy life, but is rarely seen now at the protest. Archil gained fame (or infamy, depending on who you ask) for removing license plates from cars, usually from police cars.
Some of the dogs were taken to temporary shelters to protect them from animal monitoring, so they survived the purge and eventually returned to Rustaveli Avenue.
Nevroza, however, the freest spirit of them all, was not that lucky. Animal activists told me that she spent four months at the animal monitoring facility, practically becoming a ‘political prisoner’. Nevroza got her name for barking all the time, often at cars who she apparently thought were preventing demonstrators from protesting.
In October, when blocking the road became punishable with detention or up to one year in jail, there were several weeks, when despite this risk, protesters would still block the road. Protests and the inevitable police response would happen typically after 21:00, which the protest dogs knew. So, when the time would come, the most active trio, Nevroza, Bote, and Mesame would go near the road and would start barking at cars, expecting them to stop and allow protesters to block the road.
Activists told me that this caused police to start calling monitoring services and the dogs would disappear, which took a huge effort for them every time to get those dogs back. When they did, last time, they started putting leashes on them as a form of protection. Some of the protest dogs took it well, but Nevroza was furious. She reminded me of Spirit from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, where the horse refuses to be tamed. It took days for activists to finally manage to put a leash on her. She seemed angry and sad on a leash, but it was better than being taken by animal monitoring services.
Bote, a famous protest dog, was the luckiest, as he got adopted. Rumour has it that he is going to travel to Europe, if he hasn’t already.
Today, when the protest continues on the pavement, dogs still show up, Nevroza and Mesame among them. Sometimes, this black, short-legged chubby dog appears, tapping his paws for snacks, which he always gets. Then there is Mugri, a stray which was adopted by Marina, a regular protester. Mugri knows the protest well and knows how to pose for photos.
As a bonus, here’s a photo of a cat, who lives near the tree near Freedom Square. She would overlook the controversial arrests and raids of people following the road block restrictions, when the police would stop people going home from protest near Freedom Square to arrest them or write them a fine.
There are several initiatives to help stray dogs, stray protest dogs among them, if you wish to support them. If you also want to support our work, consider becoming an OC Media member today; we currently have a 25% holiday discount for annual memberships!
