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A Memoir Published in Europe in the Fall of 2003
It was a clear, crisp morning in November. The sun was brilliant and I took a deep breath. I felt a shudder course through my body. After all these years of living in Greece, I was still enamored of the scent of the Aegean Sea and the enticing aroma of bougainvillea. I stepped onto the jetty from our yacht moored at Koukounaries Beach on Skiathos Island, Greece.
I whistled for my childlike brood of rescued canine companions and called their names. How odd! No response. Not a sound; just the waves gently slapping the shore and the sweet melody of a choir of early morning birds.
I walked briskly towards the beach and stopped dead in my tracks. What I saw pierced my heart, shattered my mind and snatched my soul from my being.
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My four beloved dogs, Princess, Queenie, Drakoumen and Spitha, were sprawled, motionless on the sand. Their legs were bound and they were leg tied together in a circle. They had been deliberately shot to death. My tiny rescue Spitha had a small American flag shoved down her throat. Their eyes were open. Dried blood, pain and fear enshrouded them in a blanket of death.
It was this moment that I vowed to God and the universe that I would one day obtain justice for their deaths and for every animal that died in my helpless arms during the 14 years I struggled and fought to create change in this very cruel venue. I vowed that I would memorialize every animal that crossed over to a final peace and would bring tribute to every animal that would be cursed to be born, to exist and to die in Greece. It will be done.
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The next morning, after 14 years of building and managing a lucrative business, I left Skiathos, my husband, a million dollar enterprise and fled with Twinkie, Perky and Ebony and one suitcase to Athens.
For three months, I stayed with my best friend, Shey Rokkas, a Canadian girl married to George Rokkas, a popular Greek soccer player and then without a backward glance I left for America.
I filed for divorce; from the man; from the country. The lingering visions of suffering and death and my pain are palpable to my core and have never left me and never will.
Deliberate animal abuse and willful neglect are rampant in Greece and have been for decades. Poisoning, shooting, hanging, drowning, deliberate starvation and far worse are a way of life for the animals of Greece.
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I speak with some authority as I lived in Greece for 14 years, both in Athens and in Skiathos, an astonishingly beautiful island situated in the Northern Aegean. I speak, read and write the language. I know and understand the people. My personal history with Greece spans three decades, beginning while I was in university. That history is peppered with the visions of unimaginable cruelty and the vulnerable souls that took their last breaths as I held them close and comforted them.
For years, and at this moment, I pray for mercy for these animals and to be able to erase the heartbreaking and horrifying visions of animal cruelty and willful neglect that are indelibly imprinted in my heart and mind. I am not able to forget and so I wage war for those who have no weapons and no leaders and will continue until the moment I die and then again.
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Today I am in daily phone contact with Greek friends, journalists, government officials (of the opposition party) and animal protectionists. Greece remains under fire as the Greek state and her municipal governments continue to ignore the international animal protection movement's outcry over abject neglect and the brutal violence perpetrated against animals by some Greeks, non-Greeks and allegedly, government entities.
The 2004 Athens Olympic Games, an event intended to unite the world in camaraderie, good will and international sportsmanship has only served to perpetuate a flourishing practice in Greece - the merciless slaughter and consequent disappearance of thousands of abandoned dogs and cats. These are innocent, homeless creatures barely able to stagger through the streets of Athens and the greater Attika area in desperate search of food, shelter and human kindness.
Sadly, the nationalistic thrill of ancient history revisited and the promise of cash registers "chinging" in the "bottom line" at the Olympic Games preclude any shred of compassion or humanity.
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"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals
as they now look upon the murder of men.
"Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Musician, Engineer, and Scientist"
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