President of the club Violeta Gabrielyan described the kind of world that animals live in within our society. “Our doors are open to all types of animals, but they can not bring, for example, horses to the club. However, in similar cases, we can tell where the person can take the horse by telephone. The main animals that we accept are dogs and cats, but we sometimes have turtles, parrots and even ducks,” says. V. Gabrielyan. According to her, throughout the years she has seen that there is a demand for these kinds of clubs. The problem is that, whereas in the past the state was the one in charge of providing literature, training cadres and other issues, now the club tries to “get on its own two feet”. V. Gabrielyan and the club’s veterinarian often participate in the dog exhibitions in Russia and come back to Armenia with new experience. Besides that, V. Gabrielyan considers the level of veterinary science in Armenia as high. Besides curing animals, the club also has a cattle-raising farm where they multiply the number of clean animals, has other services-especially animal hair care. Similar kinds of clubs have started paying attention to the family of animals where they state the dog’s mom and dad. If the dog is served, then it must have a passport. Why? For example, if the dog has been injected in order to fight some diseases and bites someone when it is aggressive, then it is necessary to prove that the person that has been bit has no health danger. Besides that, the dog can not travel without that passport. “We have many customers that come with the purpose of marrying their animals. That is a hard process because the animal also has feelings. There are specialists that know how to pick the right couple. Sometimes they come to us with interesting questions, for example, what to do if the cat has fallen in the chimney,” says V. Gabrielyan.
Contact with animals and these activities are a plus for disciplining the new generation. The child sees how the parents show affection towards the animal and that child is disciplined with the same spirit: “One of our psychologists had recommended that a six year old child with heart problems to keep a pet. The child’s parents bought a small dog and now, after a year and a half, the child has been fully cured,” says V. Gabrielyan.
Gabrielyan also talked about the thing that we ask us ourselves the most: to keep or not to keep a dog in the house. Of course, that is something which depends on finances, time and daily care. The animal wants attention, so the person who wants to keep a dog in the house must think twice before buying. “Of course, I don’t believe that by treating the animal like a human, the animal can then “control you”. Sometimes we get complaints that the animals want the owner to feed them with spoons or take them out for walks at 6 a.m. in the morning. The owner is the one to blame for this,” says V. Gabrielyan. Sometimes the acts by careless people are dangerous not only for the lives of people, but also the animals. Recently, someone let his dog belonging to the “Chao Chao” family of dogs loose in the area located near the Mergelyan Institute. People know that man and he says that he doesn’t need that dog. However, that dog gets aggressive whenever someone approaches it. There is nobody to verify that.
Where are animals buried? There is no cemetery for animals in Armenia. Creating cemeteries for animals is pretty expensive and since there is no demand for that, it seems absurd to create one. “Generally, people bury their pets in their gardens or in the yards in front of their villas. Whoever doesn’t have that opportunity, he or she comes to us. We have two properties (one on the road to Nor Nork and outside of Yerevan) where we organize the animals’ funerals,” says V. Gabrielyan.
P.S. Ksyusha and Eric, from the “Chao Chao” group of dogs, are getting ready to be filmed in Vladimir Presnyakov’s “Ov Sirun Sirun” video clip (within the framework of the “Yerevan-Moscow” transit project).