"Zhoghovurd": They are hiding the lions: why did Tigran Avinyan agree to be part of the animal slaughter?

The Zhoghovurd daily writes: “After the arrest of Gagik Tsarukyan and the search of his mansion that lasted about 13 hours, not only the details of the criminal case, but also the animals that were kept in his mansion came into the public eye.

The Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia officially announced that 190 scarecrows of various animals and birds, as well as 3 lions and 1 tiger, were seized from the mansion, which were recognized as material evidence and transferred to the Yerevan Zoo.

“As a result of illegal hunting, 30 million AMD of damage was caused to the environment. The other animals kept in G. Ts.’s mansion are planned to be seized and handed over to responsible custody in the coming days. The preliminary investigation of the criminal proceedings is continuing,” the statement says.

Since early yesterday morning, the “Zhoghovurd” daily has been trying to obtain permission from the Yerevan city authorities to visit the Yerevan Zoo and conduct filming to find out where and under what conditions Tsarukyan’s animals are kept, what condition they are in, whether they have already been euthanized, and how their care is going.

However, the Yerevan Municipality stubbornly refused to meet our request in any way and give the public the opportunity to present the conditions of the animals’ keeping.

Initially, we were informed that the animals are in quarantine conditions, and any kind of meeting with them is prohibited. When we explained that the quarantine regime refers to possible contacts between animals, while we only wanted to film their keeping conditions from a distance, without any contact with the lions, the Municipality presented a completely different justification. This time, it was announced that investigative actions are ongoing, and therefore they cannot organize filming or allow the media to enter.

What was the municipality hiding

What connection the lions kept in the zoo have with the investigation process remained unclear.

In the second half of the day, it became known that a tragic incident had occurred with one of the female lions entrusted to the care of the Yerevan Zoo, which is under the jurisdiction of the Yerevan Municipality. According to official information, one of the euthanized lions did not wake up.

After that, the Investigative Committee hurried to announce that appropriate checks had been appointed to find out why the animal did not wake up after being euthanized. In other words, the committee hurried to distance itself from responsibility for the alleged death of the animal.

However, the issue here is not only the fate of one animal. The question of responsibility, and perhaps also collective irresponsibility, arises. Who is responsible for the euthanization, transportation, preservation of the animals and the consequences that occurred during them. What had these animals done, which found themselves in the center of this whole process and, regardless of themselves, became victims of state actions?

It was precisely these questions that the journalists of the “Zhoghovurd” daily newspaper wanted to get answers to, seeing with their own eyes the conditions in which the animals are kept and presenting them to the public. However, we were not given that opportunity.

In this situation, the Yerevan Zoo, which operates under the jurisdiction of the Yerevan Municipality, cannot avoid public questions and responsibility, since the protection of animals is already carried out under its responsibility. Therefore, both the Municipality and other state bodies involved in the process are obliged to ensure maximum transparency and provide exhaustive answers to all questions of concern to the public.After all, what was Tsarukyan’s lions’ fault that one of them died?

Perhaps the most remarkable thing in this story was the behavior of Armen Galjyan, the head of the CP Council of Elders faction. He, who bears political responsibility for the lion’s downfall, wrote on the Internet:

“The skins of numerous animals killed by Tsarukyan, which are lined up on the walls of his house, did not bother anyone, now they say that they took them from him, that’s why the lion fell, he was a great animal lover, and the municipality is “barbaric”. All oppositionists will now become “animal lovers”.

The reason for the lion’s downfall is due to old age and accompanying diseases. The animal’s organ systems were affected: the spleen, liver, lungs, heart, gallbladder - cholecystitis changes, there is obesity, free fluid in the abdominal cavity, which is why it did not wake up from the euthanasia.”

Meanwhile, the lion’s keeper stated that the animal was healthy, 12 years old, which is not an old age. According to him, the animal was hungry in the morning, and the employees were warned that a hungry animal should not be euthanized and injected. However, according to him, the warning was not taken into account, and the animal was injected.

In addition, Galjyan should probably also take into account the fact that a significant part of the scarecrows seen in the footage of Tsarukyan’s house are not found in Armenia and do not live in our conditions, and the state even provides compensation to hunters for the destruction of some animals. Tsarukyan, as is known, has been a member of the hunters' union for decades.

At the same time, let us recall that, according to Gagik Tsarukyan's lawyer Yerem Sargsyan's statement yesterday, he has not been charged with illegal hunting. He also reported that the criminal proceedings on tax evasion have been discontinued. According to the defense, at the moment there are two charges left: money laundering and aiding and abetting fraud.