High Fines Proposed for Keeping Bears: A Zoologist's Suggestion

In various locations across Armenia, bears are being kept in private yards, small cages, and restaurant complexes. This issue remains unresolved, and a potential solution could be the imposition of hefty fines. This was stated by expert Manuk Manukyan in an interview with NEWS.am.

According to him, there are around 50-60 bears held in captivity in Armenia, and he explained how these bears end up in people's yards or restaurants: they are either given as gifts or captured. “In early spring, when the mother bear wakes up and comes out of the den with her cubs, the mother can be killed, making it easy to catch the cubs,” he explained. He suggested that receiving a bear cub as a gift should simply be avoided, and if bear owners understood the challenges that come with keeping the animal as it grows, they would refrain from keeping bears altogether.