Zoo, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

It’s kind of funny to think that in the nearly nine years that I’ve been living in Armenia I hadn’t ever visited the Yerevan Zoo until today. In part that has been because I’ve nearly been one for viewing animals in captivity, but also because few people are able to talk highly about the zoo which has been at the center of quite a few significant news stories since I’ve been here.

In February 2005, for example, animal rights activists successfully campaigned and protested to prevent an Indian elephant from being sent to join Yerevan zoo’s solitary male, Hrantik and the story even made the BBC.

A plan to gift an Indian elephant to Armenia has led to an outcry by animal rights activists.

They say six-year-old Veda will find it difficult to adjust to the colder climate in the former Soviet republic.

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“There are 50,000 elephants in India but they [protesters] just do not want to give us one,” he is quoted as saying.

“They do not want the elephant to leave their country. They are very odd people.”

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People for Animals, which is spearheading the protests, says Veda will find it difficult to adjust from India’s tropical climate to a land where temperatures regularly fall to -14C and below in winter.

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“Another worry is moving her from a biological park to a zoo where she will be confined,” says Dr HA Tanuja, a veterinarian attached to the group.

The winter enclosure meant for Veda in Armenia is said to be less than 2,500 sq ft, which is not enough to house an elephant.

A few years earlier, some big cats even died from anthrax-infected meat. A few weeks later, another died bringing the total up to five. Still, anthrax-infected meat intended for human consumption also turns up at markets from time to time so it’s probably no surprise that meat intended for caged animals is any different. Anyway, there’s also been mention of the zoo on a few blogs such as here and here, but the one that sticks out most in my mind was Garo’s at Notes from Hairenik in October 2005.

Interestingly, Garo (aka Christian Garbis) concluded that the zoo should be shut down or possibly privatized although given the way the latter usually occurs in Armenia, such a situation would have to be heavily monitored and scrutinized if it did happen.

The zoo, which is government controlled, is run down and the poor animals are not living well at all. We first went to see the bears and what I saw was upsetting but not as shocking as what I would see later. The zoo has three bears who are not in bad shape, but the ground of the area in which they reside was almost completely covered by their own excrement. There were few clean places for them to sit and as a result their fur was a bit soiled. The water that was provided for them to swim in—which was clean compared to other areas of the zoo—was littered with plastic bags and popcorn.

Speaking of litter, there was trash strewn everywhere, as can be noticed at virtually every public rest/relaxation area throughout Armenia. There was not one patch of space that did not have plastic bottles or bags on it. Naturally the bags and other crap float around when a gust of wind comes through the place and thus you have animals living with litter in their areas.

Many of the animals were clearly sick and malnourished. The ostriches totally ignored the large tub of rotten apples and bits of bread given them to eat. The foxes in their pens were thirsty, pacing back and forth or curled up in a corner. We saw no water laid for them, although a slab of rotten meat had been thrown into one of the pens that had been ignored.

One thing I noticed that really disturbed me is that almost all the animals stand and sleep on concrete or asphalt, which are in turn covered in their own feces. There is no grass or anything organic for that matter for the ostriches or other birds to walk on. And one area that contained swans had only a small pool of standing water about 10 feet long and three feet wide for them to swim in, which was completely filthy with green muck and litter, as were all the water pools in the zoo.

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I asked the guy ripping tickets at the gate why the animals are living so miserably, whereby he responded, “People are living miserably too. Didn’t you know that?” I don’t know what the hell kind of an answer that is, seeing that animals in captivity are wholly dependent on the human caretakers to provide for them.

Still, that was then and this is now as they say, and while I saw some of what Garo and others mentions in his post, the zoo wasn’t as bad as I feared. However, there’s no doubt that some of the cages for the lions, tigers, and other predator mammals are far too small. Some of the water also looked a bit dodgy to me, but I suspect that the situation is better than when Garo visited. However, as I wasn’t there at that time, I can’t really comment.

Interestingly, and to end this post on a more positive note, someone from a relatively new NGO, Animals’ Rights in Armenian Highlands, left a comment on Garo’s site back then and I’ve since found an article on why they were founded with direct reference to the zoo. As I think that most things only improve when organizations and society push for change it’s good to hear that such an organization in an otherwise “animal unfriendly” country such as Armenia exists.

From Yerevan, Armenia, Yervand Shlepchyan writes: “I realized that this(helping animals) had become the most important part of my life, that this was more interesting to me than anything else, and that this should be the main activity of my life.”

As this realization struck him, Yervand, a thirty-nine year old civil engineer, began to seek out, among his friends and acquaintances, others who cared deeply about animals. He found a lawyer, a PR specialist and designer, a zoologist, and a program developer. With Yervand as the manager of the team, they formed their new organization: “Animals’ Rights in the Armenian Highlands” or ARIAH for short.

ARIAH was officially registered in October of 2005. In November they became a member society of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

Their first big project was to have a thorough look at the Yerevan Zoo. If the name “Yerevan Zoo” seems to ring a bell, it’s been mentioned before in this column about a year ago. The Yerevan Zoo is the zoo in Armenia where Veda, the beautiful little elephant in India, was scheduled to go.

At the time, the Director of the zoo had described the zoo as “normal” and seemed not to understand why Veda would not be perfectly happy there.

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When Yervand and his friends of ARIAH took an intensive look at the Yerevan Zoo, they were appalled at what they found. They saw animals living in cramped, cold, unattractive, and sometimes dirty facilities, mostly on bare concrete, with no sort of enrichment whatsoever, with nothing to play with, and nothing to alleviate the long hours of boredom.

ARIAH wrote a calm, objective, factual description of the conditions the animals lived in and submitted it, along with photos, to the relevant government officials. Their report was received with not much interest and with inaction. No explanation was given—perhaps there were not enough pages in the report, not enough photos, not enough details, or not enough expert opinions—not enough of something to move the significant weight of officialdom.

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So, while considering how to overcome this impasse, ARIAH, meanwhile, has launched out in a new direction—humane education.
Yervand wrote recently, “One of our ideas is to involve children and youth in our activities, for them to become volunteers in shelters and at the zoo, to be close to animals and to understand their feelings and sufferings. This will be the start of the creation of a new educated generation.”

Anyway, I hope my gut reaction that the zoo was not as bad as I expected was correct and perhaps some change has occurred because such issues are now being tackled part by an albeit small part of society here, but perhaps I’m hoping too much. Still, on the whole, it was encouraging to see that everyone visiting the zoo today, including children, were acting appropriately and sensibly towards the animals although someone really does need to sort out constructing some newer and larger enclosures for the wild cats and some of the other animals.

There were also too many big bars between people and the animals to make the visit enjoyable although one of the keepers made many a family happy by taking 500 drams off them to pose with one of two lions cubs taken out of an enclosure. I assume he was earning some money on the side, but I don’t know. Of course, as many animal rights activists might point out, how people consider zoos is pretty much based on how they view animals and birds in the first place. Personally speaking, I’ve never really liked zoos which is why it took me so long to visit this one.

Still, as it’s unlikely that the zoo will ever be closed down it would be good to instead see some more improvements made not only for the sake of the animals, but also because it could play an important role in terms of education. Actually, I think that a much improved zoo would be a welcome addition to a city such as Yerevan which otherwise has very little going for it when it comes to allowing kids to come into contact with nature of pretty much any sort.

ARIAH has a web site at http://www.ariah.am.

Zoo, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007