Yerevan authorities plan to open animal shelter for stray dogs

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan City Hall plans to open an animal shelter for stray dogs.

The facility will be designed for permanent care of up to 300 dogs.

Harutyun Arakelyan, the director of Yerevan City Hall’s Animal Care Center, an organization tasked with vaccinating and sterilizing and then releasing stray dogs back to the streets, told Armenpress that the animals will be vaccinated, treated, sterilized and permanently cared for by veterinarians at the new shelter.

The stray dogs will not be caged in the facility, Arakelyan said. The animals will instead freely move within the shelter.

The shelter is planned to be opened in 2024.

Furthermore, the Animal Care Center of the city will then focus on the adoption process. Arakelyan said that there are numerous problems concerning the issue of stray dogs because there are no clear laws on the matter. “We’ve had many meetings with lawmakers, now there is a bill aimed at preventing irresponsible treatment of animals envisaging, among others, fines for those who would violate the regulations, and this will overall regulate the area,” he said,noting that some dog owners irresponsibly abandon their dogs in the streets after few months of ownership.

After the first permanent shelter is opened, authorities plan to open such facilities in other districts.

Over 3,400 stray dogs were sterilized and vaccinated against rabies in 2023 by the Animal Care Center, which now runs a clinic.