Letters

Letters Following 'Massacre' of Strays in Ioannina - March 2004

Letter to Costas Karamanlis (the new Prime Minister of Greece), following the pre-election speech he gave in Ioannina

Dear Mr Karamanlis,

Last Friday you addressed crowds of your supporters in the central plateia of Ioannina. It was, by all accounts, an impressive event - music, flags and television cameras everywhere. Unfortunately it made little impression on the dozen or so stray dogs who usually inhabit the square. In fact they didn’t get to participate at all. They bled to death the previous evening after being poisoned with rat poison.

The poison was placed in the central plateia and the sterilised and vaccinated dogs who died were those who used to sunbathe on the steps of the nomarcheia. It doesn’t take much intelligence to work out that somebody in their zeal to clean up the plateia in preparation for your visit also decided to clean up the dogs in a barbarous manner. A type of barbarity that has become an everyday event.

It frightens me to think that I could have been walking one of my adopted strays in the same area last Thursday evening. It frightens me to think of

children touching the poisoned food but most of all it frightens me that so little regard is given to the law in Greece. Citizens, and even, if rumours are to be believed, local authorities are so sure that this sort of act will not be investigated by the police or any other authority that they can openly lay poison in the most central area of the city.

Poisened Dog It is worth remembering that in this town the number of animal lovers who vote can be counted in their thousands. Greek Animal Rescue based in the UK has sponsored the sterilisation of over 500 owned animals in Ioannina over the last three years. Ensuring that people sterilse, microchip and register their animals is the only way to prevent dogs and cats being dumped on the streets. Poisoning, and the mentality that supports it is the solution of thugs and bullies. It is also illegal.

I would be grateful if you could ensure that similar poisonings do not occur during the remainder of your election campaign, but I would also like to be reassured that should New Democracy be elected the appropriate authorities will investigate and prosecute those responsible for the poisonings in Ioannina.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,
Mary T.

Letter to the Mayor of Ioannina

Dear Mr Gondas

It is with great dismay that we learn of yet another poisoning ‘massacre’ taking place in Ioannina and it’s not a coincidence that it happened just before Mr Karamanlis arrived to give his election speech. While the crowds celebrated and the politicians shook hands and smiled for the camera, a dark shadow of death hung over the central square ... the agonising death ten or so dogs suffered after eating poisoned bait. Their stomachs ruptured, their bodies convulsed, they vomited blood and they suffered agonies before they finally died

WHY?? What reason was there to exterminate the dogs just because a political rally was being held in the square? The dogs were friendly and healthy and not a threat to local citizens, so why did they have to die?? I would also like to point out that they were vaccinated and sterilised, thanks to our charity’s neutering programme and Ioannina’s own animal welfare organisation, KiDiZo. Under the new legislation, stray dogs are supposed to be collected from the streets, sterilised, microchipped and released back into the area they were taken from ... but do they ‘live happily ever after’? Sadly, the answer is no! After a few weeks or a few months, most of them seem to ‘disappear’.

While Greece is preparing to host the Olympics, the country as a whole will attract a lot more media attention and the focus will not be only on the ‘games’, but also on the ‘strays’. Articles relating to animal welfare issues are already appearing in ‘foreign’ newspapers, most recently, the New York Times. Would it not alarm you to learn that the Ioannina poisonings may be read about on the Internet and I assure you, recent poisonings in your town are already featuring on various sites.

I sincerely hope you will acknowledge this letter, but should I not hear from you, I will assume that you are not concerned about the poisonings (including those on the University campus and the hospital grounds, most of which had been sterilised) or about your city’s reputation.

Yours sincerely,

Vesna Jones (Founder)
Greek Animal Rescue (UK)

Updated: March 2004