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CHEEKY - a 6-7 year old
poodle cross was
chained up in a tiny hen house
for years with minimal shelter
from the weather
which ranges from minus
10 to 40 degrees C
in this part of Greece.
He was in a dreadful
state as you can see.
Ears and teeth needed
attention. His coat had
to be shaved off
and underneath he
had severe dermatitis
as a result of
poor nutrition.
He was slightly
aggressive at first and
he actually walked like a
hen, lifting his little legs
up in the same manner
as they did.
He turned out to be
the most adorable
little dog.
He curls up in
bed every night with his
adoptive dad who is a bird
rehabilitator in Germany.
Cheeky can be relied on
to not harm the birds &
Harald describes him as
the best thing that
ever came into
his life.
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News Article:
Humane Activists From Around The World Are Actively Protesting What Has Become A Nationwide Terror Campaign Aimed At Destroying Animal Welfare In Greece.
Marijo Anne Gillis WAG/NY
August 2006
Threats of physical harm and legal action against advocates are rampant; personal computers have been seized by out of control police, animal advocates tossed in Greek jails and their animals confiscated.
For years, Greek and foreign animal welfare organizations have been battling brutal animal abuse and neglect and now they are rightfully battling the very law that is supposed to protect animals in Greece. Humane legislation 3170, passed in 2003 by the PASOK Parliament is seriously deficient in quality issues and sensible protection.
Convoluted and confusing, 3170 and it's rare pursuit by officials is causing a backlash of horror for those animal lovers attempting to rescue and re home tens of thousands of Greece's neglected, abandoned and abused animals. The law must be amended or repealed.
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The legal statutes mandate that local authorities be responsible for abandoned dogs, their vaccination, sterilization, identification, re-homing or spay/neuter and release programs. Purportedly funding for these projects was disbursed for humane action programs. Yet, three years later only a few of nearly one thousand municipalities and communities in Greece have initiated humane programs. The result is devastating. Tens of thousands of abandoned dogs wander the streets, starving, multiplying and becoming the victims of poisoning or random attacks of horrifying abuse.
An Emotionally Charged Issue!
Humane advocates are being accused of dealing in illegal transport and dog trafficking to experimental labs for commercial gain. There is no proof or one shred of evidence to support these ludicrous allegations and all court hearings have indeed been won by the defendants who have been forced to endure defamation of character and humiliation.
Sympathetic veterinarians are threatened with loss of license for participating in re homing procedures to loving families in Europe and dogs on their way to these homes have been confiscated and frighteningly, have disappeared. The true victims of this senseless campaign are the animals. They are taking the bullet for this nationwide folly.
The law must be amended or repealed and those civil government employees and citizens responsible for this unjust campaign apprehended, stopped and punished.
Safe passage of animals in transport from Greece to homes within the European Union or North America must be facilitated and not sabotaged. The relief, rescue and care of abandoned animals by humane advocates must be legalized and facilitated by government bureaucrats. It is time to cooperate and support Greek and foreign animal welfare organizations, not crucify them.
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SOLIDARITY LETTER
TO A POWERFUL ALLY
It is with utter frustration and desperation that we once again elicit your assistance to publicize the continuing Greek drama that continues to violate human rights in Greece and abroad and irrevocably destroy animal welfare in Greece as well as welfare advocates.
We need your powerful intervention to bring pressure to bear upon government officials and certain citizens and their very questionable activities which allegedly may include the misappropriation of funds allocated for animal welfare.
The animals and their persecuted advocates cannot demand justice but you can--simply by disclosing the truth. Ironically, in our quest to save the neglected and abused animals of Greece we have become the targets and victims of a callous witch hunt carried out by Ms. Chryssa Dile, Ministry of Agriculture veterinarian and civil employee and a citizens committee led by Ms. Ioanna Garagouni and Ms. Popi Baka of Athens.
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These fools continue to relentlessly file frivolous lawsuits against us and clog the Athens judicial system with ridiculous and unsubstantiated allegations and cost those wrongly accused a fortune in legal fees, as well as the Athens taxpayer. For so many years we have lobbied tirelessly for animal welfare reform and assurances that our lifesaving re homing programs will continue in order to alleviate the suffering of tens of thousands of abandoned and abused Greek animals.
Even as we spend fortunes of our own money and those of supporters to re home Greece's abandoned animals to adoptive families around the world; we are accused of animal trafficking for commercial gain with no proof or evidence offered by plaintiffs to support these most ludicrous and contemptuous allegations. At the same time that we are being hounded and harassed, criminal violations of the law are carried out freely by the "witch hunters' as they ignore court orders without reprisal from the authorities.
"We insist that ours is an ethical movement fueled by compassion that recognizes the consequences of human violence. One of our goals is to shift awareness and awaken compassion in a nation long overdue for animal welfare reform". We urge you to investigate actions aimed at paralyzing our rescue efforts.
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A Look Into The
Belly Of The Beast
The worldwide animal rights community joined with WAG and together we waged a two year long, high pressure campaign to disrupt the Greek governments frightful endeavor to "clean" the streets for the onslaught of tourists to the 2004 Athens Olympics. The disaster specific products of this national exercise in genocide were thousands of dead and maimed animals.
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Thanks to our persistent lobbying and the better late than never support of national animal welfare powerhouses in the USA, Greece pulled up her bikini bottoms, but only when the spotlight was cast upon her. According to Greek sources, most of the surviving abandoned street dogs of Athens, purportedly "saved" by the municipal government in a last ditch effort to appear "virginal" before the world and the press, are nowhere to be found.
The creators and purveyors of animal protection laws are selectively short sighted. Dirty money allegedly sprints from outstretched hand to pocket and the underlying fundamental mindset of a large share of the nation remains unchanged. Neglect and abuse continues and some animal advocates in Greece wage an enduring battle against each other in a contest of egos. I believe that it is time once again for us to position Greece at center stage.
MORAL AMBIGUITY:
Compounding the "sinful" behavior of certain government entities and some citizens, the Greek Church is now scrambling to salvage it's credibility as scandal after scandal emerges with clerics implicated in drug dealing, antiquities theft, trial rigging, drug dealing, prostitution and lewd conduct. Judges and prosecutors are linked incestuously with the priestly criminals. Is Greece not fearful of a sharp decline into irrelevance? Does she not wish to rehabilitate her reputation? Why this religious irrationality? In view of this anthology of shame, this entanglement in offensive controversy, what chance do the animals of Greece have? (the full story was reported in The New York Times by a Greek journalist)
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I have always been an unabashed admirer of the beauty of Greece, and lived there, while married for 14 years. In the last few months I have temporarily distanced myself because of total disappointment in a brutal society, runaway corruption, a confluence of indifference, ignorance and a lack of compassion. If Greece's historic standards and trends are any indication of future hope for elevating the status of companion and farmed animals, we are screwed, nope, correction, the animals are screwed. Certain government entities have not only made a mockery of the "games", and their proud claim of giving "birth to civilization" but of the Greek state and the church as well. The metastasizing scandals have cast an indelible shadow over the integrity of an entire nation. Greece will become a blank space in the halls of civilization if she does not take a sober assessment of her issues.
I believe that it is time, once again for us to position Greece at center stage. A Greek citizen, Ioanna Garagouni and her sidekick attorney, Agathi Lekakou are on an unholy crusade to stall the re homing of abandoned animals to adoptive, "parents" in Europe and the United States. She slanders us by "testifying" that "foreign" and Greek animal activists are engaging in commercial "dog trade" and are supplying vivisectionists and fur dealers abroad. Oddly, she has convinced the tragi/comic Ministry of Agriculture that this is true, and illegal confiscation of these desperate dogs in transit to salvation are rampant.
I wouldn't waste my valuable time and yours if I didn't believe that once again we will be able to elicit the startled attention of the Greek state and lobby for justice for the animals. We will not give in or give up until we catalyze action for change and we need each and every one of you. There should be no discernible, geographic borders where animals are concerned!
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Courtesy of Brenda Shoss
& Kinship Circle
Honorable Officials of Greece:
I remain committed to a tourism boycott of Greece. I am shocked the Ministry of Tourism has lavished $100 million on the "Live Your Myth In Greece" campaign when the ultimate myth endures: It's a fable about officials who work to end the abuse of homeless animals in Greece.
It is a fiction-based story, built upon words without merit. During the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the world learned an estimated 80% of Athens' strays had vanished as authorities swept the streets for a sleek world reception. Images of emaciated animals, hangings, hootings and poisonings emerged in The BBC, Greek TV News, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, and other media outlets. We saw cannibalized puppies and carcasses lining gutters. We heard about food laced with herbicides, pesticides and ground glass. We saw ravenous strays foam at the mouth, convulse and die. We read about a live dog crushed with the garbage and a burned kitten pulled from the trash.
The outcry from the global animal welfare community led to minor modifications. Two showcase shelters were unveiled to greet international press, even as animals continued to rot alive in makeshift pounds throughout Greece. And where are the survivors--the street dogs supposedly rescued by the municipal government in a zero-hour effort to appear humane? Greek sources report these dogs have disappeared.
In fact, little has changed. Eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence attest to ongoing cruelty. At municipal animal shelters, animals still languish in their own waste. Food is scarce and water bowls are infested with dead insects and muck. Males and females are permitted to breed unrestrained and starving dogs feed on newborn puppies.
Once again, I implore the Greek government to enforce animal welfare legislation. Certainly some of the millions spent on tourism ads could be directed toward humane reform. If Greece hopes to market itself as a sophisticated travel destination, it must align itself with European law designed to protect companion, farmed, and captive animals.
Specifically, I call upon the Greek government to:
Repeal Animal Welfare Law #3170 and uphold European Union Law, which Greece ratified in 1992. Officials have consistently ignored or misconstrued the vague language in Law #3170. Animal abusers are neither prosecuted nor penalized for their crimes.
Issue a declaration from the Office of the Prime Minister denouncing animal abuse and neglect.
Enact a Ministerial Decree that authorizes non-government animal protection societies and individuals to legally transport abandoned animals to loving homes in Europe and America. Please lift the Ministry of Agriculture's current embargo on the free passage of Greek strays to permanent homes abroad.
Thoroughly investigate and terminate, if necessary, veterinarians within the Ministry of Agriculture who obstruct the re homing of animals abroad. In addition, I urge the Greek government to monitor and penalize, when appropriate, state veterinarians on the Greek mainland and islands who undermine humane reform or violate anti-cruelty law.
Subsidize and institute nationwide low-cost spay/neuter, vaccination/treatment, microchip identification, adoption/re homing, and humane education within the school system.
The Hellenic Veterinary Association rejects spay/neuter aid from veterinarians in other countries. This is unacceptable. Greece has demonstrated its inability to manage the animal overpopulation crisis. I ask the Greek government to facilitate licensing for foreign veterinarians who have volunteered to assist in sterilization, vaccination and treatment for animals in Greece.
I will continue to encourage family, friends and colleagues to boycott Greece as a vacation spot until visible strides are made to enforce animal welfare law and institute humane reform.
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We urge you to publicize the alleged unscrupulous activities of the Ministry of Agriculture and this small citizens committee and to bring pressure to bear upon the Greek government to cease its merciless campaign and to reconcile a situation that has become profoundly reprehensible. Sadly, buried in the distortions of the lies and errors in fact perpetrated against those of us in Europe and America who are rescuing, vetting and re homing these animals, lie the bodies of thousands of homeless and abused Greek animals, the true victims of this nationwide idiocy and witch hunt and the broken spirits of too many people.
We are sure that your powerful and determined investigation and intervention will capture the attention of those government entities and citizens who are mindlessly destroying our work and will assist us to catalyze change in a nation determined to undermine all humane efforts. We thank you in advance for what we know will be your prompt and compassionate response.
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