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Actions & Committments
Massive letter writing
campaigns courtesy of
US activist Brenda Shoss
of Kinship Circle and
thousands of supporters.
Petitions with over 80,000
international signatures
handed over to Greek
government officials.
Demonstrations in the
center of Athens
staged in front of the
Greek Parliament and
Greek Embassies all
over Europe and the US.
Hi-level meetings with
prominent government
officials.
Negotiations with
lawmakers & city leaders.
Participation in televison
exposes, radio and
print media interviews
in the US and Greece.
A worldwide BOYCOTT of
the 2004 Athens Olympic
Games (which should also
be directed towards China).
Secured press coverage
from the international
media which resulted in
the Greek state pulling
herself up by her boot straps.
Battle lawsuits & allegations
of slander, libel and
defamation of the
Greek State
and most absurdly,
"dog trafficking".
Accused of dog trafficking
because we re-home
these unfortunate animals
to countries where these
brave little souls will be
safe and secure.
BENJIE - is a 2 year old male dog who was chained up in filthy conditions with minimal shelter against the weather. If he was fed at all, it was bread or something inedible like lentils.
If he had water it was rain water in a dirty bowl. He was completely ignored and tied up like a prisoner on a life sentence.
He is very small, about 6kg in weight and when we finally got hold of him we found out that he is blind in one eye and losing sight in the other eye.
A Rescuer in Greece
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Demonstration Outside
The Greek Consulate
Park Avenue, New York
City
In Defense of Animals Magazine WAG sincerely appreciates the supports of IDA at this time.
August 10, 2004
Banners waving, pulses racing, New Yorkers and supporters from the tri-state area, came out in full force to protest the mass extermination of Greek strays in preparation for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The Greek Consulate on Park Avenue was the reluctant host to a boisterous crowd of dynamic, passionate animal activists shouting in unison at the top of their voices: "SHAME ON GREECE - "BOYCOTT GREECE".
Consulate employees peered out the windows, and visitors to the consulate scurried inside and left even more quickly as demonstrators "dogged" them about their inhumanity. The police, well, what can one say? They were magnificent, sympathetic and everything "New York's Finest" are supposed to be. They winked, moved police barriers from across the street and defiantly placed them right in front of the entrance to the Consulate, allowing us to congregate a mere three feet from their door. Huge posters of the innocent victims were plastered everywhere. Pedestrians and motorists were chanting in sympathy and blowing car horns. Hundreds of leaflets and photos were distributed. Organizations around the world protested with us on behalf of the innocent victims of greed and inhumanity.
Half-way through the demonstration, two smiling FBI agents escorted quasi-terrorist Marijo Gillis, founder of WAG, and Dr. Debra Tanzer, animal activist "extraordinaire", to a meeting requested by the Consul-General. Despite the intensifying roar of the crowd below, we had a cordial discussion which lasted forty minutes and the very gracious Consul-General took written notes of WAG's and supporting organizations respectful demands. A formal letter prepared by WAG to the Greek Prime Minister was sent via diplomatic pouch to Athens. May we note that on the Consul's desk was a very thick file with the name Marijo Gillis imprinted across the top.
Major animal welfare organizations continue to support our campaign and we are so grateful. IDA President, Dr. Elliot Katz, Best Friends and HSUS called WAG today, (the first day of the Games--a day that shall live in infamy) for updates and continued offers of support. IDA and Lawrence Carter-Long are magnificent! Best Friends sent a donation check to WAG which was so moving to us and a real tribute to our hard work.
Reuters News Television interviewed WAG for over two hours and produced a dramatic, provocative three-and-a-half minute news clip for direct feed to over 350 major news outlets and networks worldwide featuring WAG's expose, "Greece in all her Glory". WAG's telephone has not stopped ringing since. Calls from Greece yesterday and today report that our documentary was shown on Greek television networks and has caused quite a commotion within the halls of Greek "justice". A contact in the Athens Mayors office informed WAG, that as activists demonstrated in European cities, embassy officials from across Europe were calling Athens demanding to know "who is that WAG woman?
As a matter of fact, a panel consisting of the Mayor of Athens (perhaps a future Prime-Minister), the Vice Mayor as well as a member of the 2004 Athens Olympic Organizing Committee went on the air to defend themselves. They continue to deny all charges - but our growing movement has left them little room for excuses or lies. Calls from correspondents covering the games in Athens, started at 5 am on Thursday and have not stopped. What better way to end the day?
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BITE BACK PROTEST GREEK EMBASSY BRUSSELS
Participants, dressed as Greek goddesses, were holding photos of poisoned dogs and drank 'blood' from a cup. Bite Back is an extremely pro active Belgian animal rights organisation. At their website you will find a link to an online petition as well as information about the horrible "house cleaning" slaughter of abandoned animals in all the Olympic venues throughout Greece.
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Humane activists from around the world will gather for a protest demonstration in Athens, Greece on Saturday, May 20th at 12 noon at Syntagma Square and at 6 pm at the Olympic complex to actively protest what has become a nationwide witch hunt aimed at destroying animal welfare in Greece. Threats of physical harm and legal action against advocates are rampant, personal computers have been seized, 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 statues 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 dispersed for action programs. Yet, three years later only 29 of nearly 1,000 municipalities and communities in Greece have initiated humane programs.
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By Neil Trent,
Executive Director - HSUS/HSI
In ancient times, when the Olympic games were as much about religious observation as they were an athletic competition, animal sacrifice played a central role in the festivities. The gods of Mt. Olympus were feted with the steady flow of blood. On the final day, no fewer than 100 cattle were slain on the altar of Zeus, the undisputed king of the hill. This summer the games are returning to Greece, where they were first celebrated in 776 B.C. While no official sacrifices are planned, many in the animal welfare community fear a massacre is forthcoming. Athens teems with stray dogs. Non-existent animal control policies, a lack of shelters, and a national resistance to keeping pets at home have allowed this problem to mushroom to the point where an estimated half million homeless pooches roam Greece, some 15,000 in the center of capital alone. Now, with the city poised to bask in the international spotlight, these unfortunate creatures could face animal control of the cruelest kind.
Call it poison ball. Someone in Greece has learned to play a very nasty sport. Visitors to the national gardens came upon the ghastly aftermath on New Year's Day 2003: scores of dogs and cats lying dead among the lush greenery, apparent victims of strychnine-laced balls of meat called fola ("poison ball") in Greek. Animal advocates in Greece have documented numerous cases of stealth massacres, including one last August in which nearly 3,000 street animals were culled while Athenians blithely enjoyed their traditional vacation period.
Government officials have emphatically denied any involvement in the indiscriminate killings, though that hasn't stopped animal protectionists from pointing fingers in their direction. After all, as animal advocates note, the mass killings tend to happen on the eve of high-profile events. For instance, the national gardens massacre occurred just as Greece assumed the presidency of the European Union.
Death by strychnine is slow and extremely agonizing? hardly in keeping with land that gave the world the word euthanasia, or "good death." The ironies aren't just etymological. There is strong objection in Greece to putting down sick animals humanely, by such means as injections of sodium pentobarbital.
The country also has shown an aversion to commonsense spaying and neutering programs that would help keep the population of feral dogs and cats under control. For years, animal welfare advocates have fought to get Greek authorities to adopt humane policies, and many hoped the Olympics would give their crusade an important boost. For a fleeting moment those hopes seemed well placed. In November, the United Kingdom-based World Society for the Protection of Animals hosted a conference in Athens to discuss humane solutions to the dog problem with Athens Deputy Mayor Tonia Kanellopoulou, among others. I was at that meeting, along with representatives of another UK animal organization, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as well as a number of Greek groups. We felt more than a little encouraged when officials signaled their resolve to solve the canine conundrum.
But reality has not borne out the hopeful rhetoric of that day. Following the gathering, the Agriculture Ministry issued a report, proposing the creation of more shelters to warehouse animals for longer periods of time, and little else. The report did not address how the animals would get to the shelters or how to keep tabs of these mom-and-pop facilities, some of which have notorious track records of neglect and cruelty. The plan also gave short shrift to spaying and neutering programs, and sidestepped the thorny issue of euthanasia altogether. So here we are just months from the start of games, and there's no pragmatic plan for dealing with these street animals who literally beg for scraps at sidewalk cafes or force tourists to sidestep them on their way to the Acropolis.
The Guardian of London reports that animal protection activists "have launched a mass evacuation campaign, transporting the strays by plane, train, truck and bus to new homes around Europe." Yet this mostly cosmetic approach seems to address only the symptoms, not the underlying causes. For their part, the Greek authorities are scrambling to do what they can. Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyanni has reportedly adopted two strays, and last year her office announced a 10-point plan to address the canine and cat crisis. Among other things, the mayor's plan calls for the round up, sterilization and adoption of stray animals. On the national level, the government has passed a law that penalizes Greeks for abandoning their pets to the streets.
American Society
for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals
ASPCA Joins International Animal Welfare Community in Condemning Mass Killing of Stray Dogs In Greece
New York, NY - August 9, 2004 -- The ASPCA is joining the international animal welfare community in condemning the deliberate and inhumane killing of thousands of homeless dogs in the city of Athens. It is believed that up to 80% of the estimated 30,000 to 50,000 stray dogs living in the streets of Athens have been poisoned in the past few weeks in an effort to eliminate the population prior to the beginning of the 2004 Olympic Games on August 13. It is reported that dogs are being fed food laced with rat poison, causing a slow and excruciating death over a period of several days. Videotape shot by the organization Welfare for Animals Global recently captured some of the more gruesome and disturbing methods being utilized on the city streets of Athens to kill dogs.
"The inhumane and archaic methods of population control reportedly being implemented in the city of Athens are simply not acceptable in the year 2004," said ASPCA President Edwin J. Sayres. "The ASPCA stands with the international humane community in expressing our disappointment with the Greek government for their lack of compassion and desire to
eradicate thousands stray dogs from their city in advance of the Olympic Games."
The international Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) recently sent a representative to Athens and is helping to train Greek officials to deal with the epidemic stray problem humanely.
International Protest Demonstration in Athens
May 20, 2006- Press Release
Marijo Anne Gillis/WAG NY
Humane activists from around the world will gather for a protest demonstration in Athens, Greece on Saturday, May 20th at 12 noon at Syntagma Square and at 6 pm at the Olympic complex to actively protest what has become a nationwide witch hunt aimed at destroying animal welfare in Greece. Threats of physical harm and legal action against advocates are rampant, personal computers have been seized, 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 statues 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 dispersed for action programs. Yet, three years later only 29 of nearly 1,000 municipalities and communities in Greece have initiated humane programs.
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The Greek Embassy - London:
Protest Demonstration
Passionate protesters peacefully demonstrated against the mass poisoning of abandoned dogs and cats in Greece - and distributed a petition directed towards the Greek government urging them once and for all to implement humane animal welfare policies and reform and furthermore, to implment them! Animal loving Brits joined en masse in incredible unity and made their collective voices heard. Many wore black arm bands symbolizing the barbaric and agonizing deaths from poisoning and memorialized those abandoned and even owned animals who were tragically slaughtered for the " 2004 Athens Olympic Clean Up" campaign.
Demonstrators shouted in powerful unity, over and over again, that Greece will win the "Gold Medal" for animal cruelty! This incomprehensible tragedy will certainly be recorded for history!
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