“On Monday it will reach Lukashenko”: what journalists found out about the scandal with horses in Martinovichi

In the Dzerzhinsky district in the village of Martinovichi, a scandal broke out: a resident of the village Inna recorded an appeal to the President with a request to save horses from negligent owners. They left the animals without water, food and a dry corner. The situation is divided in the opinions of both villagers and TikTok users. Hundreds of thousands of views and one journalistic review. Which neighbor made the horse move? Was there any personal interest? Where will the horses survive the winter? You will learn the answers in the new issue of the project “On Monday it will reach Lukashenko”, released on October 26 in the evening air of the TV channel “Belarus 1”. The horse is not a ploughman, not a blacksmith, not a carpenter, but the first worker in the village. This proverb in the village of Martinovichi is now remembered often. The focus is on the Dzerzhinsky district and the family farm “7 August”, which has been breeding horses of Belarusian sled breed for more than twenty years. In early September, a video appeared on TikTok: “Horses are in danger: they live in an emergency barn, without water, litter and on a draft.” The author addressed the President directly. In two days, more than a hundred thousand views and seven hundred comments, where people were divided: some demanded to save animals, others wrote that panic was premature.

And then it turned out that was not in the frame. People and horses mixed in this story so that you can no longer understand where caring for animals and where old human resentment. Why are the horses in an unsuitable room? Where do you have to spend the winter? Do the main characters deny the allegations? Or did someone have an interest?

The village of Martinovichi is quiet and forested. It is there that since 2004 the peasant farm “7 August” Igor and Lilia Chernik has been living. The couple more than twenty years engaged in hay harvesting and in connection with the development of business decided to breed horses of the Belarusian harness breed, later sheep were added. Since the hosts did not have a goal to engage in the tourist business, they were simply allowed to ride horses for free to the villagers. Silence and tranquility were interrupted by Inna's September TikTok video: horses must be saved, with such conditions they simply will not survive the winter.

- This story goes on for a long time. I live in this village, I grew up in this village, five generations of my family have lived here, so I care about this story, says Inna Mikhova, author of the address to the President.

According to the woman, everything began beautifully: people came who later wanted to farm and got horses.

- At first there were a small number of horses and it was joyful, as a large amount of land was introduced into circulation, which was ownerless. But over time, things went wrong. Horses did not have a building to keep them, at first they were forced on chains in the field. Gradually the population began to grow, but conditions were not created. In the summer, horses were released to pasture in a meadow, but in bad weather and winter they were in the building of an old barn, where there was never water, and the horses themselves drank water from the lake, this was considered normal, said Inna Mikhova. For two days - more than a hundred thousand views and seven hundred comments. The audience, however, was divided: some demanded to intervene, others reasonably noticed that the horses are quite well-fed and do not look suffering. The reaction of the authorities, it must be admitted, followed immediately. On the tenth of September, the district veterinary station goes to the farm, the eleventh - specialists of the district executive committee. Record violations: improper room, lack of organized watering and a number of paper delays. The owners are issued a prescription and immediately offered a solution: two unused buildings for the movement of livestock. On the twelfth of September, the horses are transferred to Volovniki under a short-term lease agreement. Conditions are created, animals are examined, pre-healthy.

- As for the conditions of keeping animals, horses of this farm, of course, what we saw, in fact should not be, said the chief veterinarian of the Minsk region Oleg Karpovich. The animals were kept in unsanitary conditions. There was no water, no fodder, no conditions for feeding animals in a particular room - no windows, no doors, the roof needed repair. But the only thing that saved us was the summer, and almost all the animals were in the pasture. They were brought there to spend the night. Water was freely available in the lake, and so all day they were in the pasture. So they were comfortable..

Oleg Karpovich noted that with the arrival of winter, the situation would worsen and in the conditions in which the animals were kept, they would acquire a bunch of diseases and diseases that could become a threat to their life and health.

- In order to prevent this, and in fact all the animals were healthy, and so that the animals felt normal in the winter, it was decided to create proper conditions for their maintenance, feeding, and free access to feed and water. For this purpose, the premises in the Putchino farm were selected, where, by agreement with the head of the farm, the livestock was transported during the day, the chief veterinarian of the Minsk region said. By the way, the Dzerzhinsk Vetstation paid attention to the farm “7 August” not for the first time. Earlier, Inna Mikhova literally wrote packs of appeals to neighbors, the commission went in the spring-summer period at least three times and revealed no obvious problems. Yes, the building is not new, but with the master's approach, the situation would be resolved quickly.

To the question why such civic activity with the wording that the authorities are allegedly inactive, the film crew was answered in the Dzerzhinsky district executive committee.

- The Dzerzhinsky District Executive Committee has been considering three appeals from this applicant only recently, noted Nikita Reut, Chairman of the Dzerzhinsky District Executive Committee.

He also noted that all these appeals were considered exclusively in full within the competence of the district executive committee and with the involvement of all necessary services, including the Department for Agriculture, Dzerzhinsk District Veterinary Station

- Here, perhaps, the aspect is this: sometimes it is not necessary to consider the instant failure to obtain the desired result as someone’s inaction. When services act exclusively within their powers, their competences, while trying not to infringe on the rights of either party and at the same time fully comply with their duties, situations arise when the applicant may see the solution of the issue in some other way, which in practice, from life, does not fit into legal conditionality. And now about the figures: before the maintenance of horses to the owners of the farm cost two and a half thousand rubles a month, now eight hundred rubles the price of one day. Rentals increased fifteen-fold, plus transportation, time, hay transportation, animal stress. But in Martinovichi, horses walked in the fields, and now, like Pushkin, "go around the chain." The Executive Committee offered repairs to the hangar, but with a ransom for 150 thousand rubles, and for a family household it is unaffordable. The owner of the peasant farm "7 Augusta" Lilia Chernik draws attention to the fact that there was a good shed on the ground, in which the couple repaired the roof and which they planned to rent:

- When they began to understand the documents, it turned out that there are no technical documents for the room. We had no choice but to ask for a second building for rent, which, in fact, was given out. The fact that it is not suitable for keeping animals - yes, there is such a point. In the end, it all comes down to time and the economic component. Now we already know how much the building costs, but then we did not understand what its price is and whether it can be bought back.

Lilia Chernik explained that the market value of the premises is 130 thousand Belarusian rubles.

- It's quite a sum. In order to improve something there, it is first necessary to buy it. And in the rental room is not particularly invested, because it is in temporary use. But we've always had enough litter and straw for our animals because I understand I have to go with the animals in the winter. The only thing is that there is no light and water in that room, but all this could be done over time if we stayed in this building and bought it, since there is a tower and electricity nearby, a water supply was also carried out.

In an interview with the journalist, the woman also noted that from the previous base to the current one - 22 kilometers.

- The building is big, nice. But it also needs to be refurbished, because it's a former farm where cattle were kept. It takes a lot of money. And most importantly, there is no feeding base, there is no land. One could ask for an exchange of land over time, but I don't know if that's possible. Now the animals feed from rolls of imported food. We are grateful to the state authorities for meeting us and offering alternatives. Problems begin when the personal becomes public. The relationship between Inna Mikhova and Lilia Chernik, to put it mildly, tense. A few years ago there was a conflict: Inna Mikhova was riding horses and her actions damaged a small foal. And after the conflict, disputes began for water: for the lake, which, after allocating land to the farm, was surrounded by grazing. It was never possible to rest there, but Inna Mikhova did not want to see the horses she used to ride there. From the lake comes a stream where the animals drank. So in winter there was a kind of "hoof problem." But they never drank from the lake, they drank from the stream that flows out of the lake. And already on the beach in the spring, the animals came several times, and this led to public opinion. But we have eliminated all violations, said Lilia Chernik, the owner of the farm farm “7 August”.

Speaking about the background of the conflict, the owner of a peasant farm explained that Inna Mikhova had previously taken the Blueberry horses from the spouses in order to ride herself and her daughters:

- She (Inna Mikhova) treated horses well. At first, she skated on our territory, after some time she asked the horses to her yard to eat grass on the site, then asked for a week, and then for two to leave them at her place, because someone came there. We never said no because a man loves horses.

After that, an unpleasant incident occurred when Inna Mikhova did not listen to Lilia Chernik while riding a horse:

- I didn't listen to it, so I went on my own. The horse she was riding had a foal, and the other horses had foals. It so happened that the foals ran towards each other, one of them could not jump the net and hovered on it, landed unsuccessfully and broke his leg. Nuance was also the fact that horses do not cast. After this incident, I told her (Inna Mikhova – ed.) that, they say, let’s not be better then ... The most interesting and remarkable thing is that when she took the horses, there was no outrage on her part about their placement. She was fine. That is, nothing has changed, the barn is the same, everything is the same, only the horses are more... According to Lilia Chernik, the situation changed after this unpleasant incident.

- She (Inna Mikhova – approx. ed.) came to me, asked, say, sell me a horse. I disagreed. She offered to pay money for horse riding and training. I asked the logical question: on what basis? We called her to work. I offered her to work with horses, offered her a salary, but the man refused, — said the owner of the farm farm “7 August”.

In turn, Inna Mikhova assures that there is no personal hostility, and since this is a private farm, it is necessary to do everything in a dignified manner and with proper conditions:

- People have kept horses in poor conditions for so many years. What responsibility do they have for this?

When asked by a journalist whether Inna Mikhova was in the new place where the animals are now kept, the woman explained that she did not look where the horses are now kept. The reason is that I do not want to deal with the owners. As the chairman of the Dzerzhinsky district executive committee Nikita Reut explained, due to the fact that the economy has passed the stage of reorganization, work is underway on the re-registration of property, that is, legal succession.

- Upon completion of the registration of legal succession, this room, where animals were previously kept, together with the adjacent plot, will be put up for auction for sale in accordance with the established procedure. We understand the position of the peasant-farm economy, namely the unwillingness to invest in what is not property. Of course, it does not justify anyone, because you can always agree, you can always determine some points, whether it is the cost of rent and so on, there would be a desire. Nevertheless, if the owners of horses, heads of peasant farms wish, we can give them the opportunity to participate in the open tender for sale. These are quite open biddings, there are certain bonuses for recent tenants due to the fact that they have rented it for a long time, they will also have certain preferences and priority. That is, by and large, the issue is as comprehensively resolved as possible, even spare ways are provided. A compromise was reached in this story, but neither side had the moral strength. The logical question is whether it was worth all the information noise, which could not have been, if the issue had been decided not on the margins of TikTok, but in a neighborly or legally approved manner. Yes, there were violations, no one denies them, and certainly does not refuse to comply, especially since the district leadership provided comprehensive assistance in finding a site and extending the deadlines. And sometimes it is important to think that the absence of the desired result does not mean the inaction of state bodies. When personal confusion becomes a cause for information noise throughout the country, it is not a concern. It's noise. And he, as you know, drowns out the main thing.

There are still many nuances ahead that are worth settling. The most important thing is to try to reconcile. After all, as it turned out, finding horses in Martinovichi was useful for both parties. Therefore, everything that benefits the Belarusian land – we will support, and what does not – will necessarily reach Lukashenko. Repeat the program see tomorrow, October 27, at 10:10 — and it will be at 19:30 on the “First information”. Do not miss, your voice will be heard, and it will definitely reach the addressee.