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Letters received from
visitors to Greece and from those living there ...
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Continued.....
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November
1998
We just returned
from our visit to Athens. I had always wanted to see the Acropolis
and was extremely excited about the trip. It was my husband's and
my first real vacation in five years. We hiked up to the Acropolis
and had a wonderful day. The problems began on our way |
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back
down. We passed by a place called the Roman Agora (an old ruin) and
my heart broke. Living there was a pack of four dogs; three adults
with white and black markings and a little brown puppy. They were
living in the ruins. They were all
unkempt and had visible sores. One of the white ones had had a litter
and I believe the brown puppy is the only survivor. It just ripped
my heart out to see these animals living in such conditions. I tried
to talk to the locals about what could be done, but nobody paid much
attention to me. We were in Athens for three days and each day we
went to feed them. These weren't the only neglected animals we saw.
It seemed as though everywhere we turned, there was another one that
needed help. I never expected Greece to be like this, it was quite
different from the picture I had in my mind. Since I have returned,
I have been unable to get the image of that puppy out of my mind
and I want to know what I can do to help. Is there anything you can
do to help me? Can I sponsor the rescue of that puppy? Can it be
flown to America where I can give it a home? Please let me know,
I cannot get the vision of neglect out of my mind.
C. C. S. - Baltimore;
USA
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June 1999
Here in Greece
we have a really big problem with stray dogs. Their number is increasing
and the authorities in many places kill them, though it is illegal
- but they do it late at night, so we can't catch them. At the moment,
we have a problem with the Municipality of Kavala (a touristic town
in North Greece). The situation: a couple of months ago the Municipality
Council anounced that they would collect all the stray dogs (about
500 - 1000) and take them to the town's "dog pound", which
is run by the Municipality. The municipal
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workers
(rubbish collectors) collect the dogs and take them to the shelter,
where they get poor food and no medical care. A few
days ago, the Vice Mayor Mr. Drakos Manios anounced that they had
collected 173 strays,
but the local animal welfare organization counted 54 dogs in the
shelter on 11/7/99. There
is no adoption program, so the
strays are either
put to sleep (we don't know under what circumstances or with which
medicine), or left by the rubbish collectors in the mountains to
starve to death. Moreover, on 12/7/99 the Vice Mayor anounced on
a T.V. channel that nothing will stop him from "cleaning" his
town and that he will collect all the strays within the next 10 days.
Our organization in cooperation with the local organization is doing
everything to stop this, but it would be very helpful if the Mayor
received letters of protest and e-mails from all over the world.
The local organization has already tried to cooperate with the Municipality,
by offering to neuter the strays (with a sponsor paying the neutering
costs), but they seem to prefer the "quick way" of getting
rid of the strays. .Please, please, please help us: Please write
to the Mayor either by fax (fax number: 0030-51-220510) or by e-mail:
(please send the e-mail to all 3 addresses): dhmos-kavala@tee.gr ....... detakav@otenet ...... cholomon_kennels@yahoo.com and
Effie Dodoura, Public Relations Manager, Argos Animal welfare Society,
Thessaloniki, Greece - e-mail: argos@spark.net.gr
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To the Mayor of
Kavala: Mr. Erifillidis
We recently heard
about your program of collecting the stray dogs from the streets of Kavala
city.
We were also informed that both the Greek and the European law forbids
the killing of healthy animals and the cause of unnecessary suffer or
pain to
them. Our experience shows that the "catch-and-kill" method never
had permanent effect on the number of strays (reduction), which can be
done only by a long term program of neutering the strays and educating
the people.
For the above reasons, we kindly ask you to stop collecting the stray dogs
and start working on a really effective way to control the number of strays
with some Greek animal welfare organizations such as the: Filoi ton Zoon
(Kavala) and Argos (Thessaloniki). We are looking forward to receiving
a positive reply to this letter.
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December 1998 |
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" I travel a lot in my
profession. I was in Greece in October '98 and was upset by what I
saw in Athens. The
more I saw, the more I was struck by the extent
of the problem and how almost all of it is rooted in ignorance toward animals.
I fed cats in the evening, and a few Greeks complimented me for taking care
of the animals. These same Greeks were disgusted by the prevailing attitudes
toward animals in Greece. They also spoke good English, so I imagine that
they had travelled abroad, and once back in Greece, saw the extent of
the problem
in Greece. I also met several Greeks who feed the cats in their neighbourhoods
and in the parks. I saw a few old ladies who feed the cats, and they smiled
at me. There is a little bit of hope despite all the despair. I am also involved
with animal causes in Poland, where I travel frequently, but there is at
least a better overall attitude toward animals there than in Greece."
L.R. - Virginia; USA
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June 1998
"This
is to see if there is anything I can do from my home in the USA to
help the sad plight of the animals of Greece. My mother and step-father
have a home there (left by my grandparents) that they visit about
once a year. Normally it's a fun thing to go to their getaway
in Kalyves (Crete), but lately it's become an absolute nightmare. My
parents can barely get the hideous visions out of their minds long
enough to carry on a normal conversation! Back in
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1984
there were barely any noticeable strays. Oh, they were there,
but they were so few (at least compared to now!) that you just didn't
give it another thought. These days, the stray dogs and cats
are everywhere, literally! Kittens in my parents backyard,
stray dogs, by the dozens, on the sidewalks and corners of the streets! Dogs
and cats left to die
due to the astounding lack of education regarding this situation. My
parents saw dogs and cats just days away from death, they were so
thin. Animals being kicked and "shooed" away. Even
most of the family "pets" are treated atrociously. It's
a normal thing to have their pets chained up in a far away field,
left all alone to occupy itself for hours, no days, on end! My
mother tried to talk to people about this but was greeted with responses
of, "A spayed dog is no good". My mother can't help
but wonder, "No good for what?" It's not as if the
people there have respect, or any particular purpose, for these strays. They
are simply there to suffer and die. More than once my parents
have befriended animals; and when it was time to go back home to
the USA, they would appoint a neighbour to take care of them, leaving
bags of food, etc. for their upkeep. Each time the animals
would run away from the sadness of my parents leaving, and more than
once it got back to my parents that their new best friend was shot
or killed in some terrible way. It broke their hearts when
Blacky, a huge, strong, very healthy black lab, was shot just
a couple months after they left. My parents wish they could
take them all home with them, but their house is full already. There
seems nowhere else to turn. Can anything to be done about this? Will the
people of Greece ever care enough to solve the problem? What
can we do to help? We need lots of guidance, but we want
to do whatever we can! Are you able to give us any information?
Thank you very much"
D. Mc Leslie; Colorado
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| My
name is S. L. (name withheld for valid reasons) and I'm sending you
this e-mail from Karpathos island, Dodecanese in Greece. It's 2:00
am and I still can't sleep. The reason I'm writing you this letter
is very important. Yesterday my dog was poisoned. My whole family is
crying and I am in a really bad state. I'm sure you are thinking right
now that it's a common situation and that there is nothing you can
do about it, but that is not exactly it. The story is much more complicated
than that. About 6 dogs have been poisoned the last two weeks, it's
terrible, they even poisoned a blind girls small dog. My dog was a
beautiful white boxer that every body loved, never |
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bothered anyone. Every
body is afraid for their animals. Please I am begging you, we need some
help at this far away island. There are rumours (only rumours) that some
money are given every year from the government in order to collect the
homeless dogs, to give the dogs that belong to somebody back to their owners
and protect the rest and try to find them a home. So, what happens is that
we have never seen any of these things happening on the island, and the
rumours say that instead
of spending that budget the way they should they kept the money for themselves
and
poisoned the dogs witch is very easily done. They just make a few hundreds
of poisoned meatballs, throw them around the island and that's it. But
nobody has the right of taking a life like this, and among the homeless
dogs a lot of other dogs that belong to people die. Even a small
kid can put something in his mouth and have the same luck that the animals
had. I'm sorry for wasting your time but we don't know what else to do.
We gathered for the first time all the animal lovers and tried to find
a solution, but we do not have experience on these matters. That is why
we are asking for your help. The people on this island are very cruel in
general, they treat animals very badly. They only care how to make money
out of the tourism, but they must realise that there are other, more important
things than money - a respect for life.
S.L. - Karpathos; Greece
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