In the shelter of the Chelyabinsk fund “Save Me” there live many rescued animals. And each of them has its own special story. The head of the fund shared them with journalists Karen Dallakyan, famous veterinarian and animal activist.

Orphan Marten

This is a marten. Jumping and biting little animal. There are several of them living in the foundation, and they are all orphans. Mom was hit by a car on a country road. The driver who was driving behind him stopped to remove the corpse from the road. I heard a squeak, looked around - and little coons were crying on the side of the road. He picked them up, and even though the frightened animals bit and scratched his hands, he was still able to bring the coonlets to Chelyabinsk. And he himself went to give injections for rabies, after all, wild animals.

Fox from a residential area

The red-haired beauty's name is Lisa. She was injured when she was still a little fox when she was hit by a car in the Zalesye microdistrict. And there are more and more such cases lately. The city has begun to make its way with new buildings into the forest, and many wild animals unknowingly run out onto the roads. This year, moreover, there was a baby boom among foxes. And a lot of fox cubs ran into suburban neighborhoods, where they died or were maimed on the road.

Fashion victims

Two silver foxes, Chernysh and Alice, live with Lisa. They are a result of the sudden popularity of buying foxes as pets. This couple was bought thoughtlessly, although foxes are far from being the animals that should live in an apartment. We played with them for the first time and gave up. The cubs began to show aggression during puberty and emit a very strong unpleasant odor characteristic of this period.

Is a wolf a wolf to a man?

One man decided to feel like the master of the wild and bought a living symbol of courage and masculinity at the zoo - a real wolf. Or rather, a Canadian she-wolf. I wanted to keep her in the courtyard of a private house. But his wife turned out to be wiser. “There will be no wolf in my yard!” - heard the disgruntled husband. And Karen Dallakyan had to shelter the she-wolf.

Is it legal to take in wild animals?

In Russia - yes. Karen Dallakyan advocates tightening laws that regulate the treatment of wild animals. A fox or a wolf is not a dog or a cat. They will always strive for freedom and, if they bite, they will gnaw to the last.

It is wrong to exploit animals in photo salons and exhibitions. They are injected with restraining drugs, and this is all to their detriment. Other countries have much stricter laws regarding wild animals. There the fines are not tens of thousands of rubles, but hundreds. In euros.

We have supervisory services, but, according to the animal rights activist, they are inactive.

“How can a non-professional keep the same bears as in Troitsk with impunity?” - Karen is perplexed.

Even in the neighboring Sverdlovsk region this is stricter. Any petting zoo is carefully checked. And the sale of animals is kept under control.

“And here in Chelyabinsk you can see an advertisement on Avito for the sale of an Amur tiger or an eagle owl, that is, animals that are listed in the Red Book,” Karen sums up.

Pecked eagle owl

Owl Filimon. It was delivered from the Kurgan forest, pecked by crows. Next to him lay another small owl, Philemon’s brother or sister, already dead. For some reason, their mother was not nearby, and other birds attacked the defenseless cubs. The surviving eagle owl's left ear did not grow for a long time and one eye did not open, but it still managed to emerge.

Sweet tooth Grisha

You probably recognize Grisha the roe deer. We followed his story last year. Grisha became an orphan due to poaching. The mother was killed and the baby roe was abandoned. Fishermen who spent the night on a lake nearby heard the sound of a gunshot and a car engine at night. And the next morning they were attracted by a plaintive squeak.

They thought it was a bird. Let's go have a look. There was a newborn roe deer next to the bloody trail. He was so scared that he didn’t even resist when they picked him up and took him to animal rights activists. Now he willingly allows himself to be petted and constantly strives to steal something tasty from the guests.

Geese-swans

In the foreground is a heron from the Troitsky region. Her wing was broken, and the bird ran near the swamp for two weeks, trying to fly. After being caught, the wing had to be amputated because the process of rotting had already begun. There used to be two more herons, but they recovered and flew straight out of the shelter.

In addition to herons, swans and ducks live in the waterfowl room. The swan in the center is a whooper swan, blind in one eye. When he was brought in, he had a broken leg, which quickly healed under the care of a veterinarian. The rest are mute swans. The gray ones did not fly away to spend the winter and remained on reservoirs from different places in the region.

Bely has been living here for the second year, brought with a firearm from Etkul. His wound was such that he continued to swim and run away from poachers, but he could not fly away. They couldn't catch him, so they left him to die.

A goose with a broken leg was taken from the dogs. A curious goose accidentally wandered into the factory. Seagulls are delivered from different places, even from the Sverdlovsk region. Two had their wings shot at. Moreover, this was not done by poachers; apparently, some flayer shoots birds for fun.

The Last Emperor

Three imperial eagles live in a separate large cage. Karen Dallakyan immediately stipulates that this is the wrong name for these birds. All over the world they are called solar eagles or imperial eagles. This is exactly the eagle depicted on the coat of arms of the Russian Federation. Where did the burial grounds come from then? Karen explained that after the revolution, everything connected with the emperor was destroyed.

Literary sources say that Soviet ornithologists decided to abandon the name “imperial”, guided by the fact that these birds allegedly often sit on burial grounds in the steppes of Kazakhstan. So they were reduced to simple “burial grounds.”

Two of them were saved by monks from the Orenburg region. Rosselkhoznadzor turned to the Dallakyan Foundation with a request to place the birds in a shelter, since before that they lived in a bankrupt mobile zoo and were accustomed to captivity, and the monks did not have the conditions to support abandoned birds.

Also here lives the famous Ural eagle, whose name was chosen by everyone in Chelyabinsk. He was brought in shell-shocked by border guards from the south of the region, from the Bredinsky district. Most likely, he hit high-voltage wires. After he came to his senses, Ural seemed to have forgotten that he was a bird and could fly. Mostly he sat and moved on his paws. And even now it doesn’t fly that often.

I’m already used to people, and especially to Karen. He responds to the nickname, and when the animal rights activist says to him: “Ural, show me who is the most beautiful here?” — the eagle spreads its wings and begins to show off like a model at a photo shoot.

Shell-shocked but not broken

Some eagles were brought by fishermen. This one was completely tame and from the very beginning was not afraid of people. He is almost completely healthy now and may be released soon. Eagles are released in steppe areas, in their natural habitat. Of course, if you are sure that the bird will survive in the wild. Hawks live with eagles. Their problems are exactly the same - some are shell-shocked, some have broken paws or wings.

Play and forget

Guinea pigs and hamsters are refuseniks. Someone bought it, played it and gave it away. Children from kindergartens and schools come to Karen’s shelter for so-called “kindness lessons.” They are given excursions, told the story of each animal, allowed to take pictures with them and feed them.

Everyone wants to touch someone, but not every shelter resident will let you touch them. And so that children do not leave offended, contact occurs with pets. In summer they run outside. They still sell them. This is a small profit for the shelter, which now exists mainly through its animal crematorium.

Help the fund

During the winter, the shelter lives by cremating animals. The city really needs this, because even in the 21st century people manage to throw their family members into the trash can or turn the adjacent areas near their entrances into burial grounds. Except for the moral aspect, this is wrong even according to sanitary standards. According to them, animals must either be burned or buried in specially designated cemeteries. There are no such people in the region.

Recently, a tragedy occurred in the Yamalo-Nenets District due to improper disposal of corpses. It was a hot summer, and the anthrax virus broke out. As a result, two people died, a grandmother and a granddaughter. And it all happened because the deer were buried incorrectly - near the house.

The cremator helps out in the winter, but is not so popular in the summer. Therefore, the shelter survives through the sale of pets and charity. An open day is organized for group paid excursions, and volunteers come to help. Schools help by collecting food. A couple of times the gazelle brought leftover cereals, fruits, and sawdust.

The shelter still exists without heating or gas. Therefore, it cannot accept those animals that need warmth, although they also need help. Some rooms are heated with potbelly stoves, since electric heaters are expensive to use. The rest are provided for - they can be treated, kept in quarantine, and have operations.

That's why any help the shelter will be relevant. At the moment, employees of the Save Me Foundation are looking for men’s hands to prepare firewood and bedding for animals.

Hundreds of saved lives of our smaller brothers (albeit sometimes very large ones) are only one part of the story. Another, and perhaps the main one, is that Dallakyan, by dealing with animal problems, reminds people of their human essence.

parrot wing

- Karen, how did you find your profession?

I was born and raised in Yerevan. There was a budgerigar living in our apartment. One day he broke his wing, no one was home, and I got scared and decided to cure him. I was seven years old then. I took the parrot to the bathroom and carefully wrapped the wing with blue tape. I was incredibly afraid that my parents would come and argue. But when my mother returned from work, she praised me and said that I did everything right. Now I understand that I put a kind of splint on him.

My parents dreamed of me becoming an emergency doctor. After graduating from school, in 1987, I then left for Leningrad to enter the medical institute, but for a formal reason my documents were not accepted, and I became a student at the veterinary faculty of the Vologda Dairy Institute. My mother was a little upset that I didn’t get into medical school, but I was happy: my latent dream of becoming a veterinarian was realized. By the way, that parrot lived with us for a long time; its wing was overgrown thanks to my “tire”.

- How did the “Save Me” foundation come about, from which your social activities began?

After graduating from college, I came to Chelyabinsk to visit my father, who worked as a metallurgist. At first he worked, as they say, for the owner. Then to the emergency veterinary service. Having received a license, he opened his own private practice. And the fund appeared in 1998. I worked part-time at a cat lovers club. Sometimes he treated animals for free, since poor owners often had no money. And one day they suggested to me that it was possible to organize a fund to help animals, which had the right to collect donations.

The first thing we did was organize an exhibition of sterilized cats. They showed how they can (and should!) be - beautiful, well-groomed.

Lesson from the Olympics-80

- By the way, do you agree that all dogs and cats should be sterilized?

Those who live in houses, perhaps. Those on the street - no. Mass sterilization is a recipe for disaster. So we risk losing the population. Nature does not tolerate emptiness; others will take the place of these animals. On the eve of the 1980 Olympics, Moscow was cleared of stray dogs and cats. As a result, rats bred, and some districts of Moscow are still unfavorable for rabies due to the invasion of foxes. By the way, cases of rabies have already been recorded in Chelyabinsk this year. This is already scary...

- How did this happen?

Dogs are city orderlies and border guards. They prevent wild animals that carry dangerous diseases such as rabies from entering the city. In ancient cities like Samarkand or Yerevan, truly stray animals live in the suburbs. These are very old populations that have learned subordination at the genetic level: where there is a person, we are not there.

- What to do with cases when dogs attack people?

An ordinary dog ​​that was born on the street will never attack a person. And a dog that a person has thrown away or betrayed is dangerous. Such animals are no longer afraid of humans...

No stray dogs

- What do you think is the main problem in the area of ​​relationships between humans and animals in our country?

In Russia today there are no social veterinary services. They are all paid. This circumstance and the lack of culture among people leads to the fact that animals multiply and then end up on the street, joining the ranks of stray cats and dogs. The second problem is the uncontrolled sale of animals. There are a bunch of consequences, including the spread of infections. But the main thing is that this gives rise to an ugly attitude towards animals as a source of income.

- How should people and animals coexist in the city?

No stray dogs. There are homeless people. If they live in a city, this is their home. The city needs to streamline its rules for keeping dogs. At any construction site, market, or parking lot there are half-stray animals. They get food, multiply uncontrollably, bite people, run out onto the roadway, and bark at night. Therefore, the first thing is that all animals need to be registered, including microchipping, certification, and some kind of identification marks. The second is capture. And very important - a temporary shelter, which we do not have. Next - quarantine for at least three weeks, so that the veterinarian can make a diagnosis and identify carriers of especially dangerous infections and aggressive individuals. After this, the commission must make a decision on euthanasia. And if the animals are healthy, inform animal protection organizations who can pick them up, find the owner or return them, if there is one.

Wild but cute

Recently, your “Save Me” foundation has opened a shelter for wild animals. How many “guests” are there today?

Together with those at home - about 120. They have different fates, sometimes very dramatic, many suffered at the hands of man. Geography - the entire Urals. Not long ago a disaster happened - the zoo in Tomsk went bankrupt. Animals and birds had to be literally evacuated. These are fox, raccoon, fox, leopard, bear, puma, seagulls, eagle. We were the first in the country to agree to help...

- Now you actually have a zoo!

It's correct to say - a zoological collection. But I leave here only disabled animals who cannot live without veterinary care. I hope that the healthy ones will soon find their new home in the park of prehistoric times under construction at the Sun Valley resort.

- I know that almost every week people bring to you wild animals that need help...

For this reason, we did not make an official opening. Our capabilities are still limited. We haven't received gas yet, although they promised. In winter, it is necessary to spend a lot of money on heating with electricity the premises where animals are kept. Our animal crematorium, the only one in Chelyabinsk, could compensate for the costs. According to sanitary rules, biowaste can only be disposed of through combustion. It is strictly forbidden to bury the corpses of animals, and besides, we do not have special cemeteries. Today, when discovering animal burials, the prosecutor's office issues an order to remove it. How and where? We are ready to burn animal corpses for free, but give us at least some subsidies! Alas, we do not yet see a partner here in the form of the state.

Zhorik and Marysya

- Karen, what are you most proud of?

There are many achievements: an eagle, a lioness, wolves released into the wild, foxes rescued. But the story with the tiger cub Zhorik is a real victory. It was she who encouraged us to create a shelter for wild animals and birds...

- By the way, how is Zhorik doing?

He is alive and well, the staff of the Khabarovsk wild animal rehabilitation center “Utyos”, which sheltered Zhorik, are not praying for him. By the way, good news: the center is coming under the care of the state.

But now we have another heroine. Our star is the lynx Marysya, who seems to be able to change the law.

- Is this the same one who was almost shot in the winter in the Etkul region?

Yes, she got caught in a noose on private property, where she climbed in search of food. Miraculously, she survived, but her paw had to be amputated. But what to do next was unclear. She is barred from returning to the wild because she is disabled. According to the law, the animal had to be confiscated from us and put up for auction. If it doesn't sell, it is destroyed. This outraged me. I wrote an appeal to the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources S.E. Donskoy and to Roskomimushchestvo. It turned out that only municipal organizations have the right to give animals away free of charge. NPOs are not considered a partner of the state, although we essentially perform the functions of our Ministry of Ecology - we save animals. And here is the latest message from Roskomimushchestvo - with an example from Chelyabinsk, they ask the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for environmental issues S.B. Ivanov to amend the legislation so that, firstly, NPOs are considered a partner of the state, and secondly, to tighten the rules of the auction, according to which today any Anyone can buy a lynx on it and make a stuffed animal out of it. I think, by Marysia’s example, we saved many wild animals from being euthanized.

Get rid of the stigma

- A traditional question for our project participants. What untapped reserves does the Southern Urals have?

Our region is unique; it is located in three natural and climatic zones. This can be used to develop ecotourism. But landscapes without animals are not interesting. I remember one of my trips. Border of Germany and the Czech Republic. We stand on the highway and look at a herd of sika deer. And pheasants walking like pigeons. No one has the thought of shooting: they are under state protection. Animals in their natural environment, this can be done anywhere. We have wild boars, roe deer, and sika deer have successfully adapted in the Satka region. In my opinion, there should be no zoos, there should be national parks, such as the Taigan Safari Park in Crimea.

- What would you like to see Chelyabinsk like in the future?

I really want Chelyabinsk to become kinder. What we miss most is kindness. The notorious Chelyabinsk severity is a stigma that needs to be gotten rid of...

Aivar Valeev, photo by Alexey Golyanov

Karen, of course, is not an animal, but she is directly related to this collection. The best veterinarian in Chelyabinsk!

We have known Karen for a long time. Once, an unusual patient lived in his clinic - the bear macaque Marusya. Late in the evening she ran out of the house into the cold, only in the morning the owner discovered her in a semi-fainting state on the veranda. The primate was brought in in a lifeless state: due to severe hypothermia, Marusya was in critical condition, her body temperature at that time was 33 degrees. Karen, remembering her grandmother’s recipes and consulting with the pediatrician, began treatment. “Doctor Aibolit” did everything possible to bring his strange patient back to life. He gave her wine and hematogen. Marusya thanked her savior for her miraculous recovery. With love. She talked to him and stroked his hands. It was gratitude that the doctor did not let her die. Such cases happen to Karen quite often.

This time I met with him to learn more about the doctor himself. It was Saturday evening. Karen wasn't even getting ready to go home yet...

Karen Vachaganovich Dallakyan is the only Chelyabinsk resident who received a letter from Brigitte Bardot, founder of the Save Me Animal Protection Foundation, zoopsychologist, veterinarian and owner of an American Persian nursery registered in the USA.

Hello Karen. Please tell us about yourself: where, when were you born, and where did you study?

I was born in the city of Yerevan in 1970, in the year of the dog. Studied in high school. I really wanted to enter the then prestigious Leningrad Veterinary Institute. But I got two B's and one C'. As a result, I didn’t pass the score. Transferred to the veterinary department at the Vologda Institute of Dairy Industry.

Did you regret that you ended up at the Vologda Institute?

As it turned out, I was very lucky to get into this university. Typically, in veterinary institutes up to 400 students simultaneously study for this specialty. For us it was the veterinary faculty. There are 70 students on the stream. A specialist, a professor, worked with each of them. There was personal contact with everyone. This later helped me a lot in my profession.

I spent half a day chasing a wild boar to pass the exam.

Why did you decide to study to become a veterinarian in the first place?

I always wanted to follow in the footsteps of my mother - she is a biologist - I dreamed of becoming a doctor. There was a lot of specialized literature in the house, which aroused my special interest. And since childhood I decided to connect my life with animals. He brought cats and dogs home all the time, although his parents fought. Already at the age of seven I had my first operation. My first patient was a parrot. One day he was sitting on a swing and the cage fell. The parrot injured its wing. As I understand now, this was a turning point. Locking myself in the bathroom, I operated on my pet. After that, he lived happily for another three years. It’s probably a gift to see what’s wrong and intuitively correct it.

Do you remember how you did your internship?

One incident from my practice stuck with me for a long time. It was necessary to measure the temperature of the wild boar. They measure it rectally (this is such a piquant intimate hole). We set a thermometer for the boar. This boar escaped and ran into the village. The professor said that if we do not catch the animal, he will not give us an exam. It was autumn, mud. We had neither galoshes nor rubber boots. But there was nothing to do - we ran to look. We spent half a day catching wild boar, and we had to do it as carefully as possible so as not to damage either the thermometer or the patient. The boar was caught, and then they laughed for a long time.

And once you also did an internship at a meat processing plant, right?

Yes. I remember back then all the students were sent to work on potatoes, and we were sent to a meat processing plant. Some people gave up their profession after such practice. They saw blood and fainted. I wasn’t scared, on the contrary, I was interested. We didn’t see the slaughter itself; we worked with the carcasses. I carried my lungs with my heart. Once I took four lungs at once. One was found infected. I couldn’t remember which carcass this organ came from. I had to write off all four because of me.

When did you start working in your specialty?

While still studying, I worked part-time at a kennel club. This was in the years 87-92. After graduating from college, I came to Chelyabinsk. Private veterinary practice has just begun to develop here. Businessmen opened an emergency veterinary service at ChMP. Specialists were needed. I went to work for them. And ten days later he became the head of the service. I worked there for only a year, and then the service closed. It was '94. I had a couch and a table at my disposal. So I opened my own business.

“Let them tie themselves, but with animals you need affection”

Is it true that any animal, even from a low-income family, can become a patient of your clinic?

Absolutely right. Firstly, when I worked part-time at a cat lovers club, people with low incomes who could not afford expensive treatment for their pets often turned there for help. And secondly, the fashion for expensive animals was just emerging. Therefore, the demand for purebred cats was really great. I decided to create a fund in which we could help both. Our system allows us to treat simple “mutts” at the expense of wealthy clients. Those who can pay the “price” price, and less wealthy people treat their pets here on preferential terms.

What else distinguishes your foundation from an ordinary clinic?

We really love animals. We never commit violence against them. In some clinics, to give an injection, the dog is stretched out on couches and tied up. Let them tie themselves, but with animals you need affection. And in some clinics the doctor does not even approach the patient. A paramedic gives them injections and a nurse cleans up. I am not embarrassed to take a mop myself and wash the floor after an animal. If a person has a higher education, this does not mean that all the “dirty” work should be done by someone who does not have one. Any person should monitor cleanliness. My students from veterinary schools, unlike their colleagues from academies, are hard workers, they do not snort or disdain.

Are they doing internships with you?

This is another direction of the foundation - working with future specialists. Students from veterinary academies and schools undergo internships with us. Once they brought us a French bulldog with a stroke. They themselves resuscitated the dog over the phone: they contacted me, and I dictated to them what to do. This practice is akin to learning to swim, when the boat is turned over and the person swims out. Yesterday my trainee Katya took blood intravenously for the first time. This proves that there is no need to experiment on animals, kill frogs, break their legs, and then operate. You can gain experience naturally.

What do you think about experiments on animals?

Naturally, I am against testing cosmetics, perfumes, and household chemicals on animals. In Europe, there are constantly promotions for the purchase of products that are not tested on animals. Such products are marked with a rabbit on a green background. Animal testing looks terrible. For example, eye mascara is tested on rabbits. They are given a protective collar to prevent them from reaching their eyes, and mascara is applied to such an extent that the animal suffers a burn to the retina. Sometimes it gets to the point where a rabbit can lose an eye.

What else does the foundation do besides treating animals?

We work a lot with children in the fall: we tell them about the rules of keeping animals, instill a love for them, give lectures in libraries, and even took patronage of a living area. Once we held a cat show, went outside, and saw: children standing and crying. They came to see the cats, but there was no money for a ticket - they were from an orphanage. Naturally, I carried them through. But it touched me so much that we decided to hold an exhibition of purebred cats in Orphanage No. 7. We bought watermelons and cakes and came. The guys gave us a quiz. We've been friends with them ever since. They help us hold charity exhibitions: they really liked playing with cats.

Is the exhibition called “A Christmas Tale”?

Yes, this is an annual charity exhibition of spayed and neutered cats, in which anyone can participate, regardless of the breed of their pet. Visitors will learn that it is easier and more correct to keep a sterilized animal rather than breed them. They can sign up for preferential castration. As part of such exhibitions, seminars are always held for future breeders on keeping pets, breeding, and feeding.

Animals understand words

In 1999 you received the qualification “Zoopsychologist”. This is the first time I've heard this term. Tell us what the work of an animal psychologist is, and what is the psychology of animals?

The fact is that animals really have their own psychology, their own character. My task is to understand the patient, find the problem and cure.

What do you need to remember when getting a pet?

First, you must definitely understand it. Many people take, for example, an aggressive hunting dog and turn it into a decorative, sofa dog. The dachshund seems to be a cute little dog, but keeping it at home is strictly prohibited. In this small body there is an accumulation of negative energy against a person.

Or, as for owning cats: someone started a rumor that there is no allergy to hairless animals. Nonsense. People do not analyze the origin of animals, and, meanwhile, mixing several breeds in the blood can lead to disastrous results. Half Persian is a large, beautiful animal, but psychologically aggressive. This happens because in Persians the aggressiveness gene is dormant. When mixed with breeds where there is a lot of this gene, the result is an evil creature that cannot be scratched or stroked.

There is sexual aggression in animals. I always compare: old maids are evil, and so is the animal. A hormonal imbalance occurs. A dog who took a walk at a “dog wedding” needs to prove that he is the owner.

You also need to remember that the emotions of the owners are always transferred to the animals. They read our facial expressions and understand our words. Therefore, even if your pet is seriously ill (pah-pah), you need to think only about the good.

And then our conversation with Karen was interrupted by a phone call. “Do you want to see a leopard?” he asked me. “They’ll bring Margot now. She has pneumonia." Of course, I couldn't miss this chance.

“The leopard turns – and towards me”

By the way, what other exotic animals have you had to treat?

I had macaques, leopards, lions, tigers, snakes, giraffes. One day the leopard developed a swelling in the lower jaw area. They determined by eye how much he weighed and administered anesthesia through the bars. He fell asleep. As soon as I touched the tumor site with tweezers, the leopard turned - and towards me. I drop everything - I had scissors in one hand, a tampon in the other - I grab him by the ears and shout loudly: “Ugh.” The young assistant behind the cage burst out laughing: “It’s a leopard, not a dog!”

Was the leopard cured?

Let's talk about your pride - the American Persians.

I am the owner of an American Persian cattery registered in the USA. Once a year I participate in a serious international exhibition under the CFA system - this is the largest organization of cat lovers in the world, one of the oldest and most authoritative. Only professional breeders take part in it. In Chelyabinsk, I am the only felinologist who is also a veterinarian. Now I want to finish my postgraduate studies and pass the exams to become an expert felinologist.

There is Lake Van in Turkey. On its banks live cats of the Turkish Van breed. They are white with two spots on the head and a colored (red, black, red, cream) tail. I set myself the goal of getting the Van color from the Persians. And now I have adopted a cat of a color that is not even available in America. Real exotic, but for now I’m keeping quiet about it.

I have a world champion seven-year-old Karenper Rigoletto. In 2000, he became the best kitten at the world exhibition in Moscow.

Why cats?

The cat is a very difficult patient. If dog breeding began to develop in the 30s, then felinology arose only in the 90s. A cat always hides its illnesses, so even at the academy they know very little about them. The amount of literature, technology, and medicines for their treatment is very limited. Few people know that an aspirin tablet can kill a cat.

Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a strange guest - Margot. Karen spoke to her as if in a language she understood. She didn’t behave like she was at a doctor’s appointment: she played cheerfully with a fluffy toy and posed flirtatiously in front of the camera lens. Apparently she likes this good doctor... Karen.

Karen Dallakyan, president of the Save Me animal protection fund, is a person known far beyond the borders of our region. He could have left a long time ago for Moscow or at least Chelyabinsk, but for many years he remains our fellow countryman, a resident of Kopeysk.

We asked the chief Aibolit of the Southern Urals why the Red Banner city was dear to him, and at the same time we talked about the specifics of the veterinarian profession.

- Karen Vachaganovich, are you planning to move to Chelyabinsk, closer to work?

- I still remain a Kopey resident, I live in a house on Goltsa Street and I don’t plan to move in the foreseeable future.

We have a wonderful city, which in many respects is better than a metropolis. My eldest son studied in one of the Chelyabinsk schools in the first grade, and then, after moving, I transferred him to Kopeisk school No. 42. The difference in training and education in these two educational institutions was colossal, which affected the future lives of graduates. Many of my son’s Chelyabinsk classmates are in prison or have become drug addicts. For graduates of the 42nd, life is much more successful. These guys are socially prosperous, have no bad habits, received a good professional education without any problems, and built their own families. For this, I believe, we should largely thank the Kopeis teachers.

I also like Kopeisk for its traditions of good neighborliness. In our house, everyone knows each other, they greet each other with pleasure, and older people enthusiastically monitor public order.

One day a large group of friends came to visit my sons. So one of the neighbors allowed only two children to enter the entrance, and told everyone else to wait outside so that they would not disturb other neighbors with their hubbub. My wife Alvina and I are both working, busy people, but thanks to our neighbors, our boys remained under supervision every hour.

- It seems to me that good neighborly relations are preserved only in the old districts of Kopeisk. In new buildings, people can live side by side for years and not even say hello...

- And this is very sad! As a rule, young people live in new buildings - grown-up children of the 90s, our “lost generation”. Most of them lacked parental warmth and basic education: fathers and mothers were busy making money - in difficult times they had to somehow survive. These children were raised by television. And you probably remember those terrible films and programs filled with aggression and the psychology of “market relations” that were shown two decades ago.

I really want our society to return to a trusting attitude towards each other, so that we learn to respect each other. We still have an example of correct interaction in society - it is set by elderly people, respected pensioners. It's time to learn kindness before the older generation is gone.

- What was your childhood like? Did you have enough parental love and attention?

- I remember my childhood years spent in Yerevan with great warmth. My dad, Vachagan Khachaturovich, was a worker, my mother, Ruzanna Agvanovna (unfortunately, she is no longer with us), worked as a biologist. I inherited my love for living beings from her.

We spent a lot of time together, my parents have always been my best friends and role models.

- Mom wanted you to become a veterinarian?

“She dreamed that I would treat people, whereas I always wanted to treat animals. By and large, both of these wishes came true: the veterinarian provides assistance to both the pet and its owner. You should see the psychological state in which some owners of sick or injured cats and dogs are! We make sure to calm people down, help them come to their senses - we conduct a kind of psychotherapy.

- At what age did you make your choice of profession?

- Also in childhood. My mother had a so-called “pass” to the Yerevan Zoo - a pass that gave the right to free admission, thanks to which I spent all my free time near the enclosures with animals.

The official opening of the season was on May 1. So we even had a family tradition - immediately after the demonstration we went to the zoo. At the entrance to his territory stood a man who was holding a hat with fortunes rolled into a tube, and on his shoulder sat a trained parrot who knew how to get these “magic” pieces of paper. Dad always bought predictions for the whole family - they invariably turned out to be good and simply could not help but come true.

- Karen, you, a child with a kind heart, didn’t feel sorry for the animals sitting in cages?

- Back then we didn’t think about it... For my generation, the inhabitants of the zoo were a marvelous wonder, a wonderful miracle: where else could we see a living elephant or a tiger? Nowadays children can turn on the channel “My Planet” or “Animal Planets” and watch educational programs about the life of the jungle or savannah, but we did not have such an opportunity. There was also a shortage of illustrated books about fauna.

- How do you feel about zoos now?

- This is actually a sore subject. There are very few stationary zoos in our country (we don’t take into account mobile menageries, which are prisons on wheels) where a comfortable habitat close to natural conditions would be created for animals.

As an exception, I can probably name the Taigan park in Sochi - after visiting there, I completely changed my ideas about our Chelyabinsk zoo, and not for the better. If you keep lions, then it should be a pride: two lions, one of which will be the leader, and several lionesses - then the animals will feel good and begin to reproduce. We have one individual of each sex. Polar bears, on the contrary, are loners and must live separately. We have two in one enclosure. Monkeys should not be locked up for the winter in a foul-smelling room, where there is little space and the ventilation is initially incorrect - they need the opportunity to live as a large family and move around, even in a limited space.

I would also like to say something about the food supply. How can you purchase food for animals through tenders and feed predators with cheap pork of unknown quality! The animal must hunt, and this condition is not observed in most zoos in the country.

There are also no veterinarians on the Taigan staff; only twenty-five people work there for three thousand animals - and the animals feel great. In the Moscow Zoo, which is much smaller in number of inhabitants, there are only ten veterinarians! Why are there so many of them? Funds are spent incorrectly, and this also has a negative impact on the living conditions of the animals.

- On your Facebook page it is indicated that you received your professional education at the Vologda Institute. How did you end up there?

“Initially, I planned to enter the Leningrad Medical University,” my parents persuaded me. But when we arrived in the northern capital, it turned out that the competition for admission to this university was unusually high, and applicants were “cut down” even before the exams, at the medical examination. I had problems with my teeth, so I convinced my mother that going to medical school would only waste time, and I sent the documents to the Leningrad Veterinary Institute.

I was one point short of the entrance examination, but the university management made a wise decision: the students who were close to the passing mark were redirected to other educational institutions in the country. That’s how I ended up at the Vologda Dairy Institute named after Vereshchagin.

- Was studying easy?

- I wouldn't say that. I graduated from the national Armenian school, so I spent the entire first semester adapting to the new language environment. But most importantly, we had very strict and demanding teachers, who even had to work hard to get the “satisfactory” mark. A bottle of cognac as a means of “appeasing” a teacher during an exam was completely impossible, not to mention monetary gifts. No discounts were provided to anyone, not even pregnant students. A guy could be kicked out of a lecture for coming in a woman's robe.

Nevertheless, I studied well - and was proud of it. The honors diploma was ruined because of one C grade in agricultural economics. Starting from my third year, I worked part-time, both in the military unit and assisted our professor at the dog breeding club.

- When did your “baptism of fire” as a veterinarian take place?

We, students, were sent to a farm to take blood from bulls that were kept free-range. The bulls were not happy with us and squeezed the teacher and me between each other. The teacher had a reusable syringe with a thick needle in his hands, and this needle entered my hand - we were squeezed so tightly. I don’t know why I screamed more loudly then - from pain or from fear.

The second memorable incident also happened on a farm - my classmate and I came there to mark our internship, and there was a big fire. I had to participate in rescuing animals that had inhaled combustion products. The cattle were very expensive - dairy cows that were purchased in Finland. The faculty soon received gratitude from the farm management, and our classmates treated us as heroes for a long time.

- Does a veterinarian need pity? Or is this an unnecessary feeling?

- You need love for living creatures. And pity is harmful for doctors; it quickly leads to emotional burnout. Students who practice at my clinic often cry along with their owners. You can't do that! If you, a specialist, cry, you will not help either the animal or its owner. A veterinarian needs hardening and readiness for any, even the most unskilled work - to clean up after an animal that, out of fear, excuse the bluntness, made a puddle, to prepare a workplace for an examination or operation.

- Are you willing to take students on internships?

- I have great pleasure working with young people. All students of the Faculty of Biology of ChelSU undergo internships with me - these are future biologists and zoologists.

Today, commercialization is taking place in all spheres of life, individualism is clearly manifested, and not all veterinary clinics agree to accept trainees, because they are afraid of raising competitors. I want to help the university prepare competent specialists, who are not fixated on money, because I am aware that we will one day give up our place to young people. What matters to me is who will inherit this world.

https://www.site/2017-08-09/rayonnyy_deputat_karen_dallakyan_o_chinovnikah_biznesmenah_shaurme_i_doghanterah

“Every centimeter of the city is divided, and someone shares with someone else”

District deputy Karen Dallakyan - about government officials, businessmen, shawarma and dog hunters

Well-known veterinarian and public figure in the Southern Urals, Karen Dallakyan, has been a deputy of the district council of the Kalininsky district of Chelyabinsk for three years. In addition to worries about cats, dogs and various exotic animals, there was added a headache about neglected yards and a lack of places in kindergartens. Some time ago, a deputy stood shoulder to shoulder with his constituents in defense of a park near high-rise buildings in the northwest, challenging an influential businessman who intends to build a shopping complex on this site.

“It’s even insulting. How can an official write such a thing?”

— What issues do you have to face as a deputy at the district level?

— In general, a deputy is a link between the voter and the authorities. It is in this capacity that we have to work. There are many questions about landscaping and playgrounds. Our people today are very active, but no one bothers about little things. Only in cases where they are faced with a deadlock created by officials. Basically, everything is resolved positively, and this contributes to our mutual understanding.

— Have you had to deal with unexpected problems?

“The problem with new buildings in Academ was unexpected for me in the sense that when I was elected, this territory did not yet exist. And now people live there, and they belong to my constituency. People bought apartments and were faced with the fact that they didn’t even have local police officers. Some people can’t get their child into kindergarten, others can’t get to a clinic. In September I expect a flood of requests regarding schools and kindergartens. Or if something happened in the courtyards, it is still unclear who will repair what. The management company refuses, and so does the city.

— The main headache, of course, is the shopping complex that is being built under the windows of residential buildings...

- Yes, this is the loudest case in my district. Construction of a shopping complex in front of the house on Molodogvardeytsev, 70a. The businessman wanted to cut down the park, although these trees are a curtain from the road, cutting off noise and dust. Somehow, the city administration gave permission for this construction. People found out about this already when work began on the site. They asked me to look into this.

We made a bunch of requests. One of them received the following answer: your status as a district deputy does not allow you to make such requests.

It's even insulting. How can an official write such a thing? He lives on taxpayers' money and writes this! And the question was elementary. It turned out that the residents of this house had been paying for the local area for many years, but it had long been leased to private hands! The question is, what did people pay for?

The businessman turned out to be the former deputy head of the regional tax police. There is no such structure anymore. A retired civil servant is building a shopping complex that residents don't need. The store will create continuous problems. The first three floors of a residential building will simply remain without sun. Plus cutting down trees. Chelyabinsk is not famous for its good air at all, and here they decided to cut down the trees that had been growing for 30 years. It is clear that people came out en masse to defend themselves: mothers with children, young people, and pensioners. Everyone is against it, but someone wants to make money on this piece of land.

- Are you able to resolve this issue?

Residents of the house on Molodogvardeytsev wrote an appeal to the authorities on the fence

— The issue is difficult to resolve. But I am obliged to intervene in this situation. These people chose me, they trusted me. They have problems, I have to solve them. There is a lot of ugly stuff in this story. For example, work started on a weekend, at 7 am. Some are still sleeping, some are in the gardens. This was done so that no one would understand anything. Some kind of security agency appeared, wearing a black uniform without identification marks. Healthy men against grandmothers... They yell at them, scare them, use unhealthy methods. What does this mean? They are hiding something! We raised the question loudly. I hope the truth will prevail. And this territory will belong to the residents, and not to a businessman with shoulder straps.

“Probably some kind of arrogance helps”

- Let's get back to your status. Your colleagues, district deputies, say that the status really provides few tools for resolving the issues of district residents. Do you give up in this situation?

— When you receive an answer that you do not have the right to make a deputy request, then such thoughts, of course, come. But I don’t have the character to give up right away. When you see injustice, you have to go to the end. Perhaps some kind of arrogance helps. I'm sure I'm right, so I move forward. The same permit for construction in the park on Molodogvardeytsev: yes, it exists, but to obtain it, you need to go through a lot of authorities. The same city water utility did not give permission, because there is a security zone for their communications. They refused. But, apparently, somehow they finally received this permission. For some reason the prosecutor's office did not see this. The residents and I dug it up and saw it, but the prosecutor’s office didn’t.

Some of my colleagues do not take on any problems because they are sure in advance that they will lose. But I believe that if something is done for people, then we must go to the end. City officials must understand that they have a lot in their hands. But the main thing is that they have people’s mood in their hands.

We see a lot of protests and rallies for various reasons. Why are people unhappy? Yes, because my grandparents planted these trees 40 years ago, and now they are cutting them down in front of their grandchildren because someone wants to set up a store.

And so people were left with problems, horrors from TV every day. And then someone else starts building under the windows. Don't we have enough shops? If a children's leisure center were built there, for example, not a single resident would be against it. And we have only shopping centers, only kiosks with shawarma and vegetables.

— Conventional shawarma is a controversial topic. Some are against it, while others talk about the rights of entrepreneurs, the jobs they create, and taxes. Are you against this?

“I am with both hands in favor of bringing order to street trading.” The same Teplotech was turned into a spontaneous market. Everyone has long ago moved away from kiosks to civilized trade, but here they are multiplying. What kind of jobs are there? One person? Work should not disturb others. And when the kiosks are one on one: vegetables, shawarma, everything in a heap... I was on the jury of the Biology Olympiad for schoolchildren, which was held by Chelyabinsk State University. The guys did research. They bought this shawarma at several kiosks and found E. coli in each sample.

There was not a single pure sample. This infection is everywhere, even children have discovered it! This is poison, and this is what they feed us. What are the business rights here?

Try it, just stand at the crossroads and start trading. They will immediately come to you and ask: what are you doing? Why then is everyone who is now trading with violations allowed to do this? Every centimeter of the city is divided, and someone shares with someone else. And that's wrong. This is unfair. I work honestly: I perform operations, I am responsible. Why can officials who sign papers be cunning?

— Did being elected as a deputy somehow affect your business?

— Firstly, for me the clinic is not a business. Look for yourself: I don’t have a super renovation or anything else here. Everything we earn we spend on our foundation, on social activities, on the shelter. On animals, of which there are more and more. It's especially busy in the summer. Every weekend is an anxious day. Someone is always bringing someone. For some reason, people think that the owls who are now learning to live on their own are orphans. They pick them up, bring them to the city and give them to us. You can't do that. But once they are brought, they need to be looked after. We do this. The latest case was that we picked up a little fox that had been hit by a car, and it turned out to be rabid. Now the shelter is closed for quarantine, and we cannot help other predators that may be brought to us.

- The work associated with the shelter... It has no end, the animals will never end...

“We’ll never run out of animals, but we have an idea.” Public hearings have already been held about the fate of Nikolskaya Grove, which is located next to us. We propose to open a park there. We would release some of our animals there. Many of our pupils, like children, will no longer be able to live in the wild. Giving them to zoos or private hands is wrong. And here you can create a well-groomed area, fence it off and release birds and roe deer there. Nikolskaya Grove is essentially a forest. And the animals there will be under our supervision, and all this will be available to people, they will be able to see how the same roe deer live. There are holes in the grove where you can imitate ponds. Waterfowl can be spotted there. We came up with this proposal, there are volunteers who will monitor everything. It is important to give the necessary status to Nikolskaya Grove so that it cannot be cut down, it cannot be built there, etc. And for residents it will be an additional place of recreation.

— Do you have enough funds to shelter wild animals?

— In Russia, charity is traditionally bad... We launched the “Looking for a Guardian” project so that someone could help with feeding animals. Because wolves and lynxes are very expensive. For organizations that will take care of a specific animal, this is real team building and maintaining corporate spirit. For example, a company took care of a lynx, and every weekend some family, one of the employees of this company visits the animal, feeds it, and takes care of it. This is just beginning to develop here. For children, for example, this is very important. They look at our world completely differently.

We have different animals at the shelter, and during all the time that we have had excursions, not a single child has said about disabled animals that they need to be put to sleep. And I hear this all the time from adults: why are you keeping them, put them to sleep.

We are waiting for these children to grow up, and this attitude towards the animal world will remain, and then society will become kinder. Now we are deciding the fate of the bear and three wolves. We reached an agreement with Solnechnaya Dolina (active recreation center in Miass - website note). An enclosure will be built there for the wolves, and they will move into it. This is also guardianship, we are the owners of the animals, but they live there, there is nature, they are fed, and tourists are interested in looking at them.

“Not a single dog in Chelyabinsk died from dog hunters”

— Animal protection is often speculated on...

- This is a dangerous phenomenon. Even in our groups, swindlers appear, hang up some photographs, and collect money. They use the name of our organization - we don’t have time to delete it. Today it is easy to use children and animals for these purposes. There are a lot of so-called animal rights activists who make money from this. I know examples where tens of thousands were collected for banal operations to remove a tumor, which cost 3,000 rubles. And there are veterinarians who use this and perform such operations.

A resident of Kopeisk demands compensation from a family whose dog mutilated her daughter

There was such a case when they collected money for an operation on a dog and eventually collected it. But at the same time, there was a person who agreed to just take the dog. He came with her to the clinic, and they told him: well, since you are the owner, pay for the operation yourself, because the money disappeared in an unknown direction. The man was billed 60 thousand! He came to us, and such an operation actually cost only 1,500 rubles.

I advise: before you help anyone, follow these animal rights activists, who they are, what they are. Watch and everything will become clear. Openness of organizations is important. For example, the doors of our shelter are open to everyone. When they ask how to help you, I invite you to visit: take a look and decide for yourself what you need. Some help with money, some with building materials, some with food.

— From time to time there are hysterics about dog hunters. Is this a myth or are there really people who are trying to kill animals en masse?

- This is a myth. I think this is a CIA job.

-Are you serious now?

- Quite. Our society has a complex emotional state. There are several weak points in Russia: children, old people, animals. They wanted to take advantage of the fact that we do not have clear rules regarding keeping animals. In all cities there is discussion, noise, protests about shootings, killings, etc. That’s not how they catch people, that’s not how they put them to sleep. In general, part of society is electrified on this topic. And they decided to take advantage of this. We have followed: such rumors, as a rule, are started around the New Year, during the holidays. And I will say that it works - there was hysteria, more than once. They called us and asked: is it even possible to take dogs out into the streets? Grandmothers called and said that they were afraid to go to their window, in case there were only dead dogs all around on the street. Those who launched it saw this effect, they drew conclusions, and I think they will use it. The anti-fur, vegetarian movement also relies on this strength and these emotions.

This was all born in the West and does not bring us anything good. It is very easy to guide such people who are susceptible to these trends and mass hysterics in the right direction. You don't have to give in to this.

I assure you, not a single dog in Chelyabinsk died from dog hunters. We announced that we would pay for the autopsy ourselves if they brought us a dog that died after eating something on the street. The poison is easy to detect, so if there was something like that, we would have known about it a long time ago.

— How do you evaluate the work of the city animal control service?

“We’re terrible with this.” Catching takes place at a primitive level, and this, in essence, is murder. Because cheap drugs are used that cause cardiac arrest. There are a lot of questions for the administration about this, because all this work is going through a tender. And every year more and more is spent on catching, but there are no fewer stray dogs. And there are more and more complaints about bites. That doesn't happen either. This is also a certain process of acquiring money.

No organization catches bitches. They catch puppies and males, but do not touch the females that are giving birth, because they are interested in ensuring that the dogs do not disappear from the streets.

There are questions about the three days during which dogs that survive the injection are kept in the holding facility. In three days, no veterinarian can determine whether a dog is contagious or not, aggressive or not. Plus the conditions of detention. Everyone whom animal rights activists took from this reception center was infectious. Therefore, they stopped taking animals from there, so as not to risk those already kept in the shelter. I think we need to increase the quarantine period to two weeks. And more than one veterinarian should make the decision about euthanasia. It is up to the commission to determine whether the animal should live or not.

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