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Letters from visitors to Greece 2003 October 2003 Hello, 
I am Greek and living in Greece and I would like to warmly thank you for your efforts to make better the lives of stray dogs here in Greece. The situation is awful! In my neighbourhood, I find every month at least one dead dog or cat because it was poisoned by some paranoid animal hater. Even dogs that are not stray dogs have been poisoned. Everybody knows who does these killings, but we cannot prosecute as the law states that we have to catch them at the time they put the poison down. Also please note that Greeks are terrible dog owners. They are even too lazy to go for a walk with their dogs in order to meet their needs. They just let them go out alone and without a collar. The result is, many dogs get lost, are poisoned or run over by cars. |
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October 2003
Dear GAR,
We
have just returned from a two week holiday in Zakynthos and I
have come home feeling not too good. At the resort, we came across
a dog that belonged to the villa owner, The dogs name is Bella
and she spends her time with tourists like us going on days out
and to the beach. We were told that she is a very good dog and
most of the local people knew her and some treated her well.
While walking along the beach one day with Bella tagging along,
a little Doberman puppy came bounding up to say hello to Bella,
the puppy seemed cared for and fit and healthy, so we thought
that it must have an owner somewhere.
Later that evening the people
staying in the apartments behind our villa went for a walk and
came back with the puppy bounding along behind them, at this
point I went over to see if I could be of any help and the chap
explained that they found her on the beach and after some coaxing
managed to pet her and he was not too sure what to do with her
next. I bent down and after a lot of coaxing, she at long last
came up for a fuss, although she was still very nervous. We thought
the best thing to do was buy her some food and tell the holiday
rep in the morning what had gone on and maybe find her owner
or maybe find a shelter that would take her, so that’s
what we did. When we awoke we found both dogs asleep on our veranda
so we thought that as it was too early to phone the rep, we would
walk along the beach and ask anyone we came across if they knew
who the dog belonged to. The search was fruitless and when we
got back to the villa we telephoned the holiday rep and within
half an hour she came round to see what she could do. She told
us that this was the norm in Greece and the island had a lot
of strays, but that she would phone around and see if anyone
could help. She also phoned the local animal shelter and they
said that the best they could do was to neuter the puppy and
release it where other strays were and hopefully it would integrate
with them, but they would not be able to collect it for a few
days.
Our holiday was coming to an end by this time, we only
had two more days to go before we flew home and we were starting
to worry that this would not conclude well for the puppy. Those
last two days we took care of her and she came to trust us, but
always on our minds was the fact that we would have to leave
her there when we flew home which in the end we had to do. I just wish
that there was more that could of been done and feel so sad and
afraid for the puppy, I don’t know anything about adopting
dogs from Greece but I do wish to learn, I would also like to
help in anyway that I can. I will be sending
you a donation in the next day or so and I will also be sending
a membership form to join the campaign. S. T.
October 2003
Dear GAR,
I will
gladly write to any newspaper, magazine or official source
you can recommend to help bring your work to people‘s
attention, charity doesn't‘t begin and end at home,
an animal is the same in any country I hope
to hear from you. A. P.
July 2003 - Letter to the Editor of Athens News
Animal
suffering? Keep walking I HAVE
lived in Greece for 11 years and I am still horrified by
the monstrous indifference and cruelty of the Greek people
towards animals. Dogs are kept permanently on pitifully short
chains, often with the chain itself wound around the neck
of the dog. Work animals are left out in the blistering sun
without water or shade. Pet animals covered in ticks are
left for days with only filthy drinking water. What is beyond
my understanding is that these incidents do not take place
in isolated areas but right outside houses in towns or villages.
People pass by all the time without either seeing or caring
about the suffering of these animals.
The government
is attempting to address the issue of stray animals before
the influx of visitors for the Olympic Games, but this
does not solve the real problem, which lies in the hearts
and minds of the Greek people. G. H. - Monemvasia
October 2003
Dear
GAR, My recent holiday was greatly spoiled by the very
public display of animal neglect and contempt on the beautiful
island of Corfu. We stayed for two weeks in Roda. Where
do I start? From the first
walk I took out of our apartment, area, I first saw a number
of cats. Three nursing queens, two pregnant, four tom cats,
assorted kittens from birth to 6-7 months old. These cats
lived in someone’s garden, right by the sea, not far
away from a fresh fish restaurant which advertised that they
caught their own fish. What happens to the ‘waste’ fish?
There must be plenty, but these beautiful, desperate cats
saw none. I can safely say this, as these cats were skin
and bone, all had mange, covered in ticks and actual worms
coming out of their skin. I was appalled at the neglect …there
were three Burmese that we would gladly own here in our
modern up to date country. I fed them every day and watched
them
struggle to survive.
Further
down the main street, still passing restaurant after restaurant,
a lovely ginger tom, a torty female (pregnant) and a black
kitten, could be found. The ginger tom was the only cat
in fair shape that I ever saw. But this didn’t last – by
day five of my holiday he had hurt his hind leg and paw.
Every time I saw him he got worse. I wanted to take him
to the vet, but who would give him his antibiotics? They
all needed veterinary treatment, but they would have needed
to be kept somewhere safe until they recovered. I have
never felt so useless and I am ashamed that I didn’t
find a way to help. I bathed the ginger tom’s leg
regularly but I did no more. I watched
in horror as seven full male dogs chased a small very thin
(bones sticking out, bad leg, could hardly walk) bitch
in season. They chased her for the last three days of my
holiday. I got her away a couple of times – no help
from anybody. The look on her face, I will never forget! Shops
in Corfu have calendars for next year of cats in Greece,
but not the true cats of Greece. I would like to go back
and put together my own calendar. I saw
a dog chained up on the second floor of a part built house – no
kennel, no shelter from the blazing sun. This I saw often
in similar buildings. The most
heart-rending sight I saw of an animal was on day seven
of my "nightmare holiday". We were in a hired
car travelling between Roda and Sidari. A puppy of about
four months ran out in front of cars in this main road.
I made my partner stop and I called the pup to me. He was
a young Irish setter type ... large paws, I noticed straight
away, as the rest of his body was deformed by starvation.
His rib cage stuck out at least 3 inches … his entire
skeleton could be seen, skin hanging loose ... she should
have been a beautiful girl one day. But not this little
one, no proud owners for this "pet". Covered
in ticks, mange, rope mark round her neck, broken skin,
things crawling on her skin, worms hanging out of her backside.
I’m crying now, I was crying then - I fed her (just
brought a load at a Euro a tin) and I gave her water. I
was getting the back of the car ready to take her with
us when she was startled and ran away. I spent
so much time thinking about what I should do. .She shouldn’t
have got away. She would have come with me. I looked every
day for her but didn’t see her again. Greek
people treat cats and dogs as we would treat "ants
in the kitchen" Greece will get no more of my money
. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. If I
can be of any help??? T.C. Yorkshire |
We looked around and could
not see anyone the puppy belonged to, so we tried to approach
her, but she was very nervous and would not come too close. We
carried on walking and the pup stayed a respectful distance from
us and occasionally ran to Bella for a bit of a play, as we neared
the end of the beach it ran off.
Having just returned from Zakynthos, I couldn't‘t
help but be concerned about the animal situation and subsequently
looked up all I could concerning Greek Animal Rescue. Whist
reassuring that there are people who do care and
want to make a long term difference, I guess this
is a phenomenal problem.
It was difficult for me
to avert my eyes from the airport dogs scrabbling
in a bin bag and wandering around us in the entrance,
but they have collars on, is that due to your organisation? 
I have
come to the conclusion that these people do not believe animals
to be capable of suffering. They seem to regard animals as
pieces of furniture or work machines and not living creatures.
Puppies and kittens are acquired like
toys, only to be discarded on some motorway or back-road
when they begin to grow up.
To View letters received before 2003 please click here