The stray-hosting programme was initiated by the Athens 2004 Organising Committee, which, on April 21, met representatives from welfare organisations based in the 14 municipalities where Olympic events will be held and asked them to assist in a dog-catching and temporary accommodation scheme. The ministry of agriculture followed up with a ministerial decision on June 3 that required local municipalities, in collaboration with welfare organisations, to remove strays from Olympic venues. The law states that, following sterilisation, vaccination and identification, strays will either be rehomed or put back in the area from which they had been collected after the Games.

Venues cleared

"We will be taking in some 185 strays in total from the Equestrian and Shooting centres in Markopoulo, the Rhythmic Gymnastics and Table Tennis centre in Galatsi, the rowing lake at Schinias, the Tae Kwondo complex and the surrounding area in Faliro," says Liana Alexandri of the Hellenic Animal Welfare Society. "These dogs will stay at our Patrikia clinic [in Koropi] until the end of September."

The stray dogs from the areas around the Judo and Wrestling arena in Ano Liosia and the Weightlifting stadium in Nikea are being taken temporarily to the Intramunicipal Clinic and Shelter at Schisto, which will also offer accommodation to dogs from Olympic routes through Agia Varvara, Agios Ioannis Rendis, Drapetsona, Keratsini, Korydallos, Moschato, Nikea, Piraeus, Perama, Haidari and Ilion. A spokeswoman for the clinic told the Athens News that it can host up to around 1,000 dogs on its premises, which have been greatly expanded since the shelter's opening in January 2003.

Around the Athens Olympics Sports Complex (OAKA) in Maroussi, the homeless canines have been gathered up by a municipal team accompanied by a veterinarian and taken to a private kennel and training school near Spata run by Nikos Ioannides. "I will be hosting approximately 40 dogs from the Maroussi area until the end of September," he told this newspaper.

Athens municipality, which has sterilised approximately 600 dogs since its catch-neuter-release programme was launched last November, will gather up strays from the immediate vicinity of the Panathenaic Stadium for the days that the Archery competition and Marathon finish are held there. Tonia Kanellopoulou, the deputy-mayor responsible for the city's stray plan, says that dogs on the roads along which the cycling race will take place may also be gathered up by municipal dog-catching crews and taken for 2-3 days to the 80-capacity kennels near Markopoulo where dogs sterilised under the city programme rest and recuperate. Kanellopoulou stresses that dogs will only be removed if they are considered a problem, and will be kept at the kennels for a minimum number of days.

Vasso Hatzimanoli, responsible for Thessaloniki municipality's stray programme, similarly emphasises that they will only move dogs from the the Olympic football stadium and training grounds if absolutely necessary. "At PAOK [where players will train], there are no dogs; at Iraklis [Kaftanzoglio Stadium, where Olympic matches will be played] there are a maximum of 2-3 dogs, and at Aris [a training ground] there are around 6-8 dogs. If necessary, these dogs will be taken to the Katafygio Zoon sanctuary for the shortest amount of time, then returned," says Hatzimanoli, who volunteers at the shelter and also organises the municipality's catch-neuter-release programme, under which some 1,000 dogs have been sterilised since June 2002.

Welfare workers have expressed concern about the situation in the Olympic city of Iraklio, Crete, but, despite a lack of funds, it appears that the municipality is attempting to find a humane solution to the stray problem. "The dimos is trying to make a shelter, not just for the Olympics but for the future," says Verena Wels, a volunteer at the municipality's makeshift pound. "Around 50-60 dogs are being kept on long chains under the trees in a field, until money can be found to make kennels. It's not ideal, but a veterinarian from the German society Arche Noah visits regularly and municipal workers are there every day from 8am until 7pm." Wels says that many of the strays come from an unlicensed so-called shelter called Dikaioma Zois where the animals were being kept in terrible conditions without any medical care.

Who's paying?

The costs of keeping and feeding strays during the Games are supposed to be covered by the ministry of agricultural development and foods, with funds being channelled through the municipalities.

"The Animal Lovers' Society of Agia Paraskevi had to battle with the municipality to get funding for the temporary hosting of dogs from the Marathon route," says Pat Aravaniti, whose Pallini Animal Farm is taking in 20 dogs for the Agia Paraskevi society until September 7. "But in the end the municipality has agreed to give us a small amount of money for feeding and providing shelter for these dogs." Most of Agia Paraskevi's estimated 100 neutered strays will stay on the streets for the duration of the Games; the 20 going to Pallini are being removed because they might get boisterous and attempt to chase the Marathon runners who will be passing through Agia Paraskevi on August 22 and 29.

Other societies have not been able to come to an agreement about state funding. "We have had many meetings with the municipality," says Dimitris Karabalis of Patra's Archaikos Syllogos society. "They insisted that the strays should be removed from around the Olympic stadium, so I organised for our society to take in around 50 and the shelter based in the University of Patra grounds to take a further 80. But it is proving a tremendous bureaucratic ordeal to get any money to cover our costs of keeping the dogs. The city council will not meet until September to approve or refuse the funding," he continues. "We need the money now. Without it, we cannot afford to collect the dogs, sterilise and vaccinate them, and provide for them until then."

In addition, Karabalis is worried about the long-term effects of temporarily taking in strays. "The solution is not for me to go and gather up a few dogs from around the stadium so that the bureaucrats can get rid of the dogs for a month. It will make more of a problem. Already now, because the municipality has been telling the media that they have reached an agreement with us to pick up dogs from the stadium, we are getting people calling from all over Patra saying, 'I have a dog that I don't want any more; come and get it.' How many dogs are going to be left on the streets now because people have heard someone's collecting up strays?"

ATHENS NEWS , 06/08/2004, page: A10
Article code: C13078A101