Mayor and Head of the Food Safety Inspectorate Seem to Be 'Sleeping in the Camel's Ear' While Stench and Hog Slaughter Persist

Residents of over 20 homes on 3rd Street of Gajegortsner in the Erebuni administrative district of Yerevan have been unable to get a clear answer for some time now about why the Erebuni mayor and the head of Armenia's Food Safety Inspectorate are not taking any measures to address the unsanitary and even illegal activities stemming from the backyard of resident Yerem Yeremyan.

In an interview with photojournalist Gagik Shamshyan, the residents expressed their concerns: “The specialists from the Yerevan regional center of the Food Safety Inspectorate and the Erebuni mayor seem to engage more in 'grandiloquent speeches' than in actual work. We have repeatedly reported the unsanitary, unhygienic, and even illegal slaughtering of hogs being conducted in the backyard of Yerem Yeremyan’s house at 12 Gajegortsner Street, but nothing has changed.”

It is intriguing to consider whether the mayor and the officials from the Food Safety Inspectorate would act differently if this stench were emanating from properties belonging to certain officials. They claim to be persistent in ensuring that consumers receive meat of high quality, yet an individual is raising the dirtiest pigs at home and performing the messiest slaughtering, while our officials seem to be 'as if asleep in the camel's ear' or are practicing a 'struthion form of politics.' It is shameful; at the very least, be diligent in fulfilling your work obligations. Don’t you think that perhaps that same pig meat will end up being bought by your relatives?”

Neighbors also pointed out that Yerem Yeremyan had even increased the number of pigs after promising the Food Safety Inspectorate staff who visited him that he would no longer engage in such unsanitary and illegal practices and committed to clearing the area of animals within a month.