The authorities effectively eliminated a private zoo located inside Tsarukian’s vast compound on Monday just as masked security officers searched it and arrested the wealthy businessman leading the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK). Wild animals kept there were moved to Yerevan’s public zoo during the demonstrative raid conducted one month after disputed parliamentary elections.
They included three lions and four tigers. Zoo officials fired tranquilizer darts to put them to sleep. One of the lions never woke up. Its death was officially confirmed the next evening.
Ashot Aslanian, the deputy director of the Yerevan zoo, said he warned the authorities that anesthesia-driven sleep will be dangerous for three of the big cats because of their old age.
“I pointed out during the relevant documentation that we are conducting a high-risk operation,” he said.
The Investigative Committee, which oversaw the operation, said it will launch an inquiry into the lion’s death.
The law-enforcement agency defended the closure of Tsarukian’s zoo the previous night, saying that the wild animals were kept there as a result of “illegal hunting” investigated by it. It did not elaborate on the claim. No lions or tigers live in the wild in Armenia.
Tsarukian’s spokeswoman, Iveta Tonoyan, insisted, meanwhile, that the 69-year-old tycoon had all legal permits for the confiscated animals.
“Perhaps the best conditions in Armenia were provided for the animals kept there,” she said.
