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• Outrage in a cage: Online display of Lions v Donkey fight spurs public outcry in Armenia

Hayq, very good, I agree on most of what you said... Regarding NKR, i doubt they would have an 'embassy' in DC if it wasn't for the Armenian lobby, nor they would get any humanitarian help from the US due to political reasons. So NKR is very dear to Spurk, it taught us many lessons about survival.... It is not enough and we can do more, but as u said the problem is Armenia now. So you are expe...

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A recent online video showing a donkey fighting off two lion cubs inside what appeared to be a private zoo cage in front of an ecstatic Armenian-talking crowd has spurred a public outcry and driven a debate on values in society, including the state of animal rights and protection.

Gagik Tsarukyan, a wealthy businessman and government-connected MP who has a zoo and is known to be particularly fond of lions, has flatly denied that the video that appeared online last week had anything to do with him or his animals.

The video showing two lion cubs fighting a donkey was first put on Twitter by a blogger with a nick of GoldenTent (real name Ani Wandaryan).

Talking to ArmeniaNow, Wandaryan says she found that video by chance when she made a search query for “Gagik Tsarukyan” on the net.

“I wanted to find a video from a wedding party (of Tsarukyan’s daughter), but I found the donkey,” says Wandaryan.

Wandaryan found the video material on Youtube, then put it on Twitter and then it was spread on Facebook and noticed by media.

On the video, which is of a rather poor quality, people can be heard talking in Armenian. They verbally urge the lions to attack the donkey and appear to enjoy that scene, but at one point when the donkey is about to emerge winner having fought off both lions, gunshots can be heard. It is not clear on the video whether the donkey was wounded with those shots or not. The material was quickly removed from YouTube, however as of today it still could be viewed on Dailymotion (so far it has been viewed more than 9,000 times there).

Tsarukyan’s press secretary Khachik Galstyan told ArmeniaNow that this video has nothing to do with the MP.

“Mr. Tsarukyan has only white lions. Besides, those cages are in a very miserable state, and Mr. Tsarukyan’s lions live in ideal conditions,” said Galstyan.

He also added that “Tsarukyan loves animals so much that such a sickening and immoral thing could not possibly have anything to do with him.”

(The population of white lions in the world does not exceed 500. The habitat for these rare animals is South Africa. Animal activists now struggle to save this dying breed of lions from extinction).

Talking to media after a session in parliament on Monday, Tsarukyan dismissed the allegations and argued that his animals are different from those shown on the video.

“People are after blackmailing… My animals and these animals that you saw are different. I keep white lions and tigers. I am a person who keeps animals and who loves animals. How can I allow such a thing to happen, especially with a lion, which is a strong beast?”

Unlike many European countries, Armenia has no legislation that would envisage punishment for torture or cruelty against animals.

Meanwhile, the latest video showing cruelty to animals has attracted the attention of many bloggers in Armenia. Some say it could have been taken as far back as three years ago.

But there are also some who ignored it.

Blogger Ruben Muradyan, who uses the nick Uzogh in the cyber space, says that he did not reflect on that video in his blog.

“I mainly write about politics, and the donkey has nothing to do with that. No one has yet proved that the beasts belong to Tsarukyan,” says Muradyan.

Blogger Shushan (a.k.a. Blansh) has written about this video on her blog, but she does not wish to talk much about it.

“But it is a fact that such things happen in Armenia,” she tells ArmeniaNow.

In Harutyunyan’s opinion, in the case with such videos and many other important issues (for example, the post-election violence in March 2008) blogs become an alternative in countries like Armenia against “guided” information coming from mainstream media.

“Now if you’ve got some message, there are lots of ways of delivering that to the masses,” says Harutyunyan.

Another blogger, Artur Papyan (Observer), thinks that the role of bloggers in the dissemination of this video should not be overestimated.

“Let’s be fair and say that the video received a broader public response only due to [conventional] media. However, this case proves that journalists do read blogs,” says Papyan.