Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.2
By Alan Hope - Trend:
All dogs go to heaven … but first they must endure the Armenian Hell.
He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.
Book of Psalms 147:9
1989 MGM/UA animated musical comedy-drama called All Dogs Go to Heaven tells an inspirational story of a dog called Charlie, murdered by his former friend. Charlie returns from Heaven to Earth to avenge his death and help his best friend, Itchy, while teaming up with a young orphan girl named Anne-Marie, who teaches them an important lesson of kindness, friendship and love.
Unlike Charlie, who by default went to Heaven, since all dogs do, tens of thousands stray dogs just in the capital city of Armenia, Yerevan, subjected to the policy of Speciesism by the mired in all of the Carnal Sins local authorities, first have to go through the Armenia’s Nine Circles of Hell on Earth.
The faith of Yerevan’s strays
In the years of so-called independence, the 26-year-young post-Soviet state of Armenia has gained its notoriety amongst the animal rights activists as the institutionally corrupt country without any animal protection legislation that exercises cruelty, torture and slaughter of the animals on a daily basis. For some years now, local authorities, pointing to an increasing number of fancy dog boutiques, thus priding themselves of being the most animal loving country in the world, have been implementing a new form of the Armenian Genocide by condoning thousands of stray dogs that prowl the grounds of the Armenian capital, looking for shelter and food, to a cruel form of inhumane death.
All Hail the Savior!
The fact is that in 2006 Yerevan City Hall had announced a tender, valued at $500K a year, for the animal control program that was supposed to deal with the ever growing stray dog population of the city by sterilizing and euthanizing it in a humane way. In line with the well-established Armenian tradition that “the results of the tender are always predetermined well before the tenders are held,” then mayor of Yerevan, Yervand Zakharyan had issued an unofficial order to announce Unigraph-X, the company which previously was solely involved in the air pollution (car emissions) control sector, the “winner” of that tender.
Back then, while commenting on the “unexpected victory”, the company’s director Mushegh Potikyan, acknowledging that Unigraph-X hasn’t had any prior experience in the field of animal control, had stated that "In general, we do many things. What difference does it make?"
Well, huge difference has been noticed by the local animal rights activists, who, ever since, have been urging the city authorities to review their stands on the animal control issue and to put a stop to Unigraph-X’s Monkey Business.
Unigraph-X’s Nazi Methodology
Firstly, in order to fit the new profile and get rid of the prior business association stigma, the company in charge of the animal control program had change its name to Unigraph-X Stray Animal Control and Sterilization Co Ltd. Secondly, the new Unigraph-X, labeling stray dogs as the prime menace to the society, had come up with a new concept of “neutralization,” as if it was dealing with terrorists rather than helpless animals.
In true Nazi traditions the company had devised a related methodology of the concept implementation, comprised of the built concentration camp, where the culled strays are being kept undernourished and medically unattended; euthanasia by Lidocaine, a pain medication that is prohibited for use under any animal welfare standard; and finally, company’s Schutzstaffel (SS) squads, in cooperation with the local police force, practice a well-established custom of shooting the dogs in the plain view of the local residents right on the streets of Yerevan, day or night.
Following to the letter of the policy of species cleaning, the company personnel simply kills the strays and dumps their corps into the present day reminder of the Nazi made mass graves. Thus, tortured, maimed and finally dead dogs of Yerevan lay in their final place of rest, the open pits called “hotels” near the Nubarashen highway. As the strays’ corps lay out in the open presenting a “salad bar” for the scavengers, continuous warnings these pits have already and might become in the future a potential source of a pandemics.
The Horrifying Stats
Not less staggering, but even more outrageous, are the statistics on the exact number of the strays it sterilized, euthanized and “neutralized,” provided yearly to the city authorities and disclosed on its website. As such, in the frame of 2006-2010 the company have claimed to had sterilized and released back to streets 36,127 dogs, while euthanizing another 1,374 and “neutralizing” 83,526. In first two month of 2011 Unigraph-X had claimed to have “neutralized” 4,583 stray, while 1,020 dogs were returned to the street after sterilization. In Jan-Feb 2012 the company stated that 4,200 dogs were “neutralized” and 920 sterilized.
Following the public outcries detesting the company methods and statistics, Unigraph-X had taken down its website, restricting release of statistics to the yearly report of the City Hall’s Trades and Services Department.
Thus, the 2016 report had shown that “during the mentioned period “Unigraph X” company [had] neutralized 15522 stray animals,” without even a mention of the ones sterilized. Addition of the publicly known and company acknowledge numbers would show that Unigraph-X had neutralized total of 107,831 in the past 10 years of its activities.
Nonetheless, animal rights activists estimated that the company catches or shots on the site an average of 90 dogs per day. In a 365 cycle that would mean that Unigraph-X rounds up on average around 32,850 strays a year.
Considering their quite visible of using horrific five to one ratio, when only one of the caught dogs is being sterilized and released, it’s evident that total number of the “neutralized” dogs rounds to 26,820 a year, or an approximate 268,200 in the past ten.
Albeit its “enormous” effort in the fight against the helpless animals, Unigraph-X’s yearly reports indicate the total number of the strays in the 115 square miles city remains virtually unchanged to stand at 46,000.
Money Maters!
Putting the moral side of the issue to the side, the financial component of the Unigraph-X’s “fascinating” reports presents another base for concern and outrage. The company claims that the costs of sterilization procedures vary between $17 for male to $24 for female dogs, while euthanasia costs only $7. Consequently, it claims, that “neutralization,” with the cost of mere $5, is the most cost effective solution for the stray dog population control.
All of the abovementioned stats are attesting to the fact that Unigraph-X has been involved in the ruthless implementation of a meticulously designed plan of animal cleaning. Nonetheless, in view of the animal rights advocates’ petitions, rallies and even desperate dognapping from the Unigraph-X’s concentration camp, arises the question of how this company by “winning” the tender year after year has sustained its operations untouched by the law-enforcement or political authorities.
Dead animal = Money = Political Careers
Well, the answer is much less complicated than one would imagine. Mayor Zakhrayn’s 2006 predetermined decision on the tender “winner” was based on the fact that Unigraph-X belongs to Ara Sadoyan, the head of the city’s administrative district of Kentron. Ara Sadoyan had used Unigraph-X’s incomes to finance his brother, Ruben Sadoyan’s political career. As a result, Ruben Sadoyan, previously unemployed for three years, had been “elected” to represent Yerevan’s ninth district in the Armenian Parliament.
Thus, two brothers scratching each other’s backs, for the past ten years have managed to scratch the back of the Armenian political elite, including the one that belongs to the former mayor of Yerevan and country’s current Prime Minister, Karen Karapetyan. Using their political connections Sadoyan brothers even managed to subdue the current reformist Mayor Taron Margaryan, who had cautiously instructed Unigraph-X’s “persons in charge to strengthen the control over the activity of the service and called them to inform the public about the professional activity of the company to exclude any misunderstanding.”
Armenia’s Animal Genocide
All-in-all, considering that Unigraph-X operates exclusively in Yerevan, the bigger picture for the animal control program in Armenia would suggest that the country’s authorities, mired down by pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth, are, in fact, practicing the ideology of Speciesism for the advancement of their personal finances and political careers, thus committing a full-scale Animal Genocide.
