Feds seek to deport 11 Russian dogs flown into JFK with possibly fraudulent rabies vaccination papers: suit

By NOAH GOLDBERG
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
SEP 15, 2020 AT 7:39 PM



The pooches — Dobermans, Dalmations, Golden Retrievers and Yorkshire Terriers — have fanciful names like “Eccentric Gold Abigal," “Wonderful Baby Blue Diamond,” “Uti-Puti Knopochka,” and “Everything’s Evil – Nevskih Ostrovov,” the feds said. (Shutterstock)


The feds are trying to deport 11 dogs back to Russia after a man flew the pups into JFK airport with shady rabies vaccination papers, according to a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The canines' handler, Ildar Gimadiev, filed suit against the federal government to try to stop them from sending them back on the next available flight. The feds claim that on Sep. 8, Gimadiev brought the dogs into the country — two of which he smuggled without declaring to customs — with potentially fraudulent paperwork regarding their rabies shots.

“My review of these documents raised a ... suspicion that they may have been falsified based on inconsistent signatures and dates of supposed rabies vaccination,” wrote CDC Veterinary Medical Officer Emily Pieracci.

On top of the documentation issue, some of the dogs, brought to an animal housing area at the airport called the ARK, have become aggressive toward staffers, the feds said.

“Several of the dogs have begun to show aggression toward the ARK staff. The ARK has requested the eleven dogs be promptly removed from the facility for the safety and welfare of the ARK staff,” wrote Assistant US Attorney Joseph Marutollo in a response to the lawsuit.

Gimadiev argued in his suit that the refusal to grant the dogs entry to the United States was “illegal, null and void” and that there is a “credible threat of future denials of entry to dogs.”

The pooches — Dobermans, Dalmations, Golden Retrievers and Yorkshire Terriers — have fanciful names like “Eccentric Gold Abigal," “Wonderful Baby Blue Diamond,” “Uti-Puti Knopochka,” and “Everything’s Evil – Nevskih Ostrovov,” the feds said.

A CDC official on the case said that rabies, which can be extremely fatal to humans, was a threat to the United States, and that there have been only three rabid dog imports from “high-risk countries” such as Russia in the last five years.

Federal Judge Frederic Block scheduled oral arguments in the case for Friday morning.

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