Karine Simonyan
Gohar Voskanyan

On April 15, 2004 a pig belonging to Alaverdi resident Samvel Tsatinyan was electrocuted while strolling in the backyard of Building # 2E of the city's Sanahin district. The loss was especially hard to bear as the animal, a sow, was due to produce a litter that the autopsy later revealed to contain ten piglets in a week's time.

The sow's owner blamed the Debed branch of the Armenian Electricity Supply Network, CJSC for his loss and lodged a complaint against the company with the Court of First Instance of the Lori Marz. In court, it was revealed that the pig had rooted up the layer of earth covering the electric cable and received a fatal shock.

According to standards for power lines, underground electric cables must be laid at a depth of at least seventy centimeters. "If that had been the case, they would have had to work harder, but people's safety would have been guaranteed," Tsatinyan says. A representative of the court who visited the spot found out that in violation of standards, the cable had been laid at a depth of forty centimeters.

The court granted Tsatinyan partial damages, finding the plaintiff himself at fault for having allowed his pig to wander into the yard of the apartment building. Thus, the electric company was required to pay only 80 % of the damages - 240,000 drams (about $460).

The Debed branch of the Armenian Electricity Supply Network, CJSC disagrees with the ruling. It's chief engineer, Misha Piruzyan, insists, "The pig had no business in the yard; children would not have been able to dig through that layer of soil." The company has taken their case to the Court of Appeals, and hopes for a favorable ruling.

But Samvel Tsatinyan is determined to defend the rights of his pig, her ten piglets, and the people who live in the building, "even if I have to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights."

In the meantime, the electric company is working on its power lines. Misha Piruzyan points out that it will be impossible to do it overnight, but gradually they will try to bring them up to the legal standard.