Let those who came up with the slaughterhouse slaughter law come, show the slaughterhouses, show their conditions, let them come, see if there are all the conditions. The livestock farmers, who are protesting at the Mrgashat village section near the Armavir-Yerevan highway, announced this today. They are protesting against a provision of the law that makes it obligatory to slaughter livestock only in slaughterhouses.

Artur Ayvazyan, the head of the Department of Nature Protection and Agriculture at the Armavir Regional Administration, had come to meeting with these protesters.

The livestock farmers continued to insist that they did not need slaughterhouses.

Today the livestock farmers had closed the highway in Ararat Province, too, but later they reopened it, provided that there would be a discussion on the matter at the regional administration tonight.

As reported earlier, these livestock farmers’ dissatisfaction is related to the long distance from their settlements to the slaughterhouses and the prices the latter offer for slaughtering the animals. They argue that making the slaughtering of their animals in slaughterhouses mandatory deprives them of their income. They have been protesting in front of the government building for the last few days demanding a meeting with the prime minister. Their rally yesterday was accompanied by the closing of some streets.

The government's decision, according to which meat sold in Armenia must have a document certifying that it was slaughtered in a slaughterhouse—which is a food safety guarantee, came into force on January 15.