YEREVAN, October 5. /ARKA/. Artsvik Minasyan, Armenian environment minister, speaking Thursday at a regular cabinet session, said griffon vulture hunt is a criminal offence. 

Earlier, a photo of three men in battledresses with two killed griffon vultures was posted in social networks. 

The men have already been identified by the police. The police said that the picture has been taken before 2013, since the number plate on the car on the photo was outdated.  

“We reacted very quickly yesterday to the illegal action,” Minasyan said. “It is already known that the incident happened long ago, persons on the photograph are already identified and the police is doing whatever is necessary…” 

In his words, such cases are not rare and the hunt of red-booked animals and birds is mainly due to insufficient awareness and the lack of eco culture.  

”If people had understood that the griffon vulture is a rare kind of birds, which is one of Armenia’s eco values, some of them would have refrain from doing that,” Minasyan said. 

He said punishment for such offences should be tightened. 

”We think the law should be reconsidered and tightened significantly, and fines should be increased even regardless of some citizens’ complicated social status,” Minasyan said. –0—