Epress.am News from Armenia
One of the bears kept in a cage at a restaurant in Ashtarak, Armenia, yesterday bit off a young woman’s finger as she put her hand inside the cage to pat the bear. The 23-year-old native of the Kotayk province Balahovit village was rushed to the Ashtarak medical centers, but doctors were unable to reattach the portion of her middle finger, the director of the medical center told Epress.am on Monday.
An employee of the “Ashtaraki Dzor” restaurant complex, in turn, insisted in conversation with Epress.am that the blame for the incident falls squarely on the visitor. “We have a two-layer cage. You should phone that girl and ask her why she put her hand in the cage in the first place,” the man said.
According to Nare Adamyan, a member of the Yerevan-based Pro Paws animal welfare charity, incidents of this kind happen almost daily but rarely receive any media coverage. Adamyan recalled that last year Armenia’s then-prime minister Hovik Abrahamyan called for the development of laws on animals contained in unfree and semi-free conditions, after the British Daily Mail printed an article about animals living in horrifying conditions at an abandoned Armenian zoo. Lawmakers, however, have yet to take any action in this direction.
In a previous conversation with Epress.am, Adamyan had said that nearly 200 entertainment facilities in Armenia have wild animals on public display, while crocodiles and tigers are even kept in private apartments in Yerevan. Pro Paws, according to the animal rights activist, periodically receives reports of wild animals in poor conditions in entertainment centers of eating places. The most commonly reported restaurant, she said, is located in the village of Mkhchyan in Armenia’s Ararat province and allegedly belongs to a relative of former prime minister Hovik Abrahamyan.