A pack of stray dogs from Russia has gone viral across the world, thanks to their strange colouring. Surreal images that have surfaced from Dzerzhinsk, located in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, show dogs with vibrant blue coats.
The animals' strange colouring is thought to have been caused by chemical waste such as copper sulphate, according to Daily Mail.
Photos of the blue dogs have gone viral on Russian social media platform VK, sparking surprised as well as concerned reactions.
You can take a look at the pics here.
The photos were taken by a local near the Dzerzhinskoye Orgsteklo plant, which was once a large chemical production facility making hydrocyanic acid and plexiglass but fell into disuse about six years ago.
The plant's bankruptcy manager, Andrey Mislivets, told Sputnik News that the dogs may have found some copper waste which turned their coats blue.
"Homeless dogs are running around. Perhaps in one of the buildings they found some chemical residue like copper sulphate," he said. "I heard that a few years ago dogs were seen whose fur had unnatural colours. They found something, nobody controls them."
He added that it would not be possible for the financially bankrupt company to catch and sterilize the dogs.
Authorities in Dzerzhinsk city are now planning to catch the dogs to give them a medical check-up. "They must be checked, their health must be assessed, and the reason for their hair dye must be found," a government spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Something similar happened in Mumbai in 2017, when photos of blue stray dogs near Navi Mumbai's Taloja Industrial Area went viral online.
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