Russian woman loses fight to keep dogs instead of parents

ST. PETERSBURG ( Russia)): A St. Petersburg woman barricaded herself in her apartment, throwing glassware and spraying tear gas at bailiffs who arrived to take her 11 dogs away and let her parents return home, authorities said.

The woman had thrown her 70-year-old parents out of the flat so that there was space for the dogs. It took bailiffs more than a year to resolve the problem.

"The judge decided that the St. Petersburg resident must part with her pets and let her parents return to their common flat," the bailiff service said in a statement.

The bailiffs had found an asylum for the dogs and then informed the woman of the date and time of their arrival to take the dogs. The pet lover said she had "a surprise" waiting for them.

"First, the woman locked herself in a room with the pets, barricading the door with boxes, wardrobes and other things," the bailiff service said. It took them more than three hours to get inside the apartment, with the woman throwing glasses and crockery at bailiffs from the windows and then spraying tear gas in a hole between doors.

The dogs put up resistance too, one of them biting a bailiff's shin. Eventually the men managed to get the woman handcuffed.

"She was taken to a local court," the bailiff service said. "The dogs were given sleeping pills and taken to the asylum."

The parents returned to the apartment.