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.
It is worth remembering that in this town the number of animal
lovers who also vote can be counted in hundreds if not thousands.
Greek Animal Rescue based in the United Kingdom 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 poisoning 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 raptured, 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)
