When Meat Becomes a 'Mine': There Should Be No Forgiveness or Break

In the well-known meat shops located on Mkhitar Gosh Street in Yerevan, health-threatening meat of unknown origin has been sold for years without undergoing any inspections. Without considering the consequences, many people have been buying this 'cheaper' meat, effectively 'laying mines' in their homes and among their children and relatives, as the people say.

The most painful part is that everyone has been aware of this—including the State Food Safety Service, the municipal authorities, and the government. Today, meat of unknown origin has been confiscated, leading to a scuffle between the meat vendors and the police.

It is puzzling that there are individuals in our country who attempt to defend those selling meat that has not been slaughtered in an approved facility, arguing that people are supporting families and solving their children's daily bread issues. What does it mean that they are solving children's bread issues? This same rationale could be exploited by drug dealers, who also consciously endanger the lives of others.

This thesis should simply be eliminated from our discourse, and there should be no forgiveness or breaks concerning any threat to public safety. Many meat vendors in stores on Gosh Street are effectively endangering others and their children’s lives, daring to insult and strike police officers. They are elements that pose a danger to a healthy society.

We believe it is undeniable that anyone posing a health risk should be isolated in accordance with the law. Were the actions of the regulatory body today appropriate? Absolutely not. On behalf of our readers and society, we demand that the authorities firmly eradicate this disgraceful phenomenon and hold the guilty parties criminally accountable. We simply do not want to believe that the competent authorities lack the courage and resources to sterilize the unhygienic and health-threatening environment.