Fight Puppy Mills from your Computer:
When the ‘Pet Shop’ advertisement (and others like it) with the cute puppies comes up on the right side of your page, click thru (so they pay for it, anywh) and then back click and report as MISLEADING! Click the little hand under the ad and give it A THUMBS DOWN!
Adopt Don’t Shop!!!
This week Kiki K. took a well earned vacation but it does not seem that way because of two incidents that took place after she left and that she was forced to deal with while driving to the village.
a) A large Collie was brought in with 2 brokenfractured legs.
b) This Griffon was thrown over our fence and three of its legs are not working - they are all wobbley. It laid there sometime from early morning until this evening when one of the volunteers found it during dog walking.
These future surgeries will put FZ NF debt for 2009 to over 8,000 euros to today. The vet’s and the pharmacists have been calling for payments, but what can we do? Stop cleaning up other people’s messes and say no to accepting injured animals or let them die? The citizens of Greece really need to step up.
We will make a poster of the dog that was thrown over the fence and distribute it throughout the neighbourhood in an effort to find its owner and charge him/her to the fullest extent of the law but we know it will be futile.
Also, on a lighter (but sad note) in Nea Irakleio, I was walking Snickers this evening on some new streets and an old man wearing only his boxer shorts on the second floor took a rock from a plant pot and threw it at us. His wife was standing next to him on the balcony. Fortunately the rock missed but it hit a car which was occupied by a very large woman who proceeded to give him an earful. We just kept walking and I swear Snickers was laughing.
Received on the Facebook today in response to the email sent requesting locations of Pension/Kennels in the city for everyone to access. The writer also posted this on our Wall and I have removed.
“hello.i want to inform you that a lot of people dont speak english(not me)and maby it is very irritating!!!i would suggest that the newsletter you sent to greek people, sould be in greek…because we live in Greccce…..!!!!!”
To which was the following reply:
Hello,
This is not a language bias issue or whatever. It is just one of convenience and common sense.
Over 80% of our newsletter friends and volunteers and donators to the shelter are English speaking foreigners from around the world. English is the language of the world and the language of the Internet. If you want to reach people - including new clients for your pension/kennel - write in English. 99 out of 100 people who get the card will know what it means. Write it only in Greek and only Greeks can read it and they represent a very small group of clients looking for services in the animal services industry.
As a volunteer trying to find as many euros, supplies, and people for dog-walking, I go to where the interest lies. Currently (and in the past) this is the foreigners in Greece. This is not to say Greeks don’t care about animals but they are much less active when it comes to digging into their pockets, voicing their opinions publicly, and/or coming to the shelter to help. The dogs and I do not have the time to wait around for the Greeks to get home from the beach this summer. When we need action, we take it from where it is offered.
Our NewsLetter that comes out 2 times per month is in Greek/English. If you wish to be on this list, send your email to newsletter@friendsofanimals-nf.com.
It has taken me 1 year to find a trustworthy accurate English to Greek translator and I use her whenever she is available (and I deem it necessary). And before you say you can recommend dozens of people, remember I have been through this before and every translation that I received was considered wrong by the next Greek (including my husband) and the next and the next and the next. It was never-ending and nothing got done, so I dropped and continued in English because I had work to do!
The following is a list of pensions that our members have sent to us for offering to those who ask about canine accommodations during the year.
We have never visited any of these pensions and are not providing a personal reference for any of them.
You should visit each and after speaking to them, ask for references, and trust your gut before leaving your cherished pet with them.
***Please send us more to post.***
Animal’s Camp: Offering training as well as accommodations.
Leoforos Markopoulou - Kaliboion, Kalibia
Telephone: 22990 47490 or 6972 819738
Jackie and Jino: Keratea
6977 200 865
jackieandjino@gmail.com
Facebook: jackie and jiino
Seferopoulos:Koropi
210 6623307
Crete:
Crete Kennels
www.cretekennels.com
www.kissamos-cats.com/index.html
Frieda Richards 6972 316892
And this for transporting animals abroad:
www.animalcouriers.com
I sent some emails to animal welfare groups in Finland (on advice of some local foreign ladies) seeking to find avenues for possible re-homing of dogs in that country and received this reply from Activist H, regarding the status of street strays and shelter occupants in Finland. Very interesting.
***
Hello!
Yes, it is true that there are no stray dogs in Finland. We have so cold winters that a stray dog can´t survive. Though we have lots of stray cats.
In animal shelters we have mostly lost dogs and their owners come to take them home. Often the same day they get to the shelter.
Some of them are abandoned on the streets because of different reasons. But also the abondoned dogs come to shelters vey quickly, within a few days. That is just because we don´t have stray dogs in Finland, and people react very fast if they see a dog without owner.
In shelter we have also dogs that are taken away from their owners by animal protection officers (mostly by vets and police). These dogs are left without food or water or are beaten.
Mixbreed dogs in Finland are mostly mixed from hunting dogs/shepherds. They have often problems with barking and destroying properties. Also they often keep running away and dont walk beautifully in leash. That´s why nobody wants them.
It seems that Finnish people want to have beautiful, furry, white, small and well behaving (and free of cost) strays, not the ones we have to offer.
This is sad… I´m very sorry, if I can´t help you any more…
I do hope that all homeless dogs and other pets get want they deserve. A loving home from it´s own homeland. It´s very sad if it doesn´t come true.
***
This morning I received this email from the lady (E) who adopted the very first kitten I rescued. It was because of this kitten I decided to volunteer with the Friends of Animals NF because the rescue and the subsequent adoption of ‘Baby’ to E, such a kind person gave me such hope, that it was a powerful motivator. I should have known something was amiss when we met to get Baby’s 2nd set of vaccines when I remarked that we would see each other again in a few months when Baby was sterilized. E said that she did not want to sterilize her because it was not natural. We discussed it a bit and I joked wait until the first heat (same as ‘being in season’) and you will be begging the vet to make the sterilization after just a few days of the howling! E lives in an apartment many floors up and has no male cats, so if she did not want to sterilize Baby and she could tolerate the sound of the heat, what was the problem I reasoned but felt she would be calling soon to go to the vet for the procedure..
Another victim of human selfishness
Received this morning:
Hey Kits Kitty,
Just to let you know that Baby gave birth to 6 beautiful kittens a couple of months ago. She is great w/ the babies - an amazing mom! We gave 4 of them for adoption to good homes & now there are 2 left that are probably gonna go to my mother’s house - she’s even got a garden! You see, now that I have given the 4 little ones I really miss them & I wanna know they are sound and well, so I guess that made me think of you & understand how you must miss my baby…! And so I thought of sending you her news :-)
all the best, E
“We can’t resolve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Albert Einstein
My reply to her:
Actually I am shocked that you allowed Baby to become pregnant in the first place - she is a house cat with no access to males unless you brought one in specifically to impregnate her. Did you learn nothing from Baby’s story? Thrown away by an owner who does not believe in sterilizing and feels that it is Nature’s course to have his cat be nothing more than a breeder for a neighbourhood already overpopulated with hungry cats.
We moved from Nea Filadelphia for many reasons but one was Baby’s mother was pregnant yet again (2nd set after Baby) and I knew the squished bodies of her babies would be on my street within weeks and those that did survive would scream for help as they wander off and be forgotten. Then I would be climbing fences making another rescue and adding one more kitten to the cage where it would live for months and months. Kiki K. and I approached the owner of the mother cat and we were told that all his cats were males! When dealing with that kind of deceitful ignorance what can you do? I took the cowards way out and left.
Baby is now just another young cat giving birth to more cats to make more cats. You just assisted in the cycle of overpopulation that true friends of animals are dedicated to stop. You have no control over the futures of these kittens and the persons that adopted them. How do you know they will sterilize them? I really thought you would be a good mother to her otherwise we would not have adopted Baby to you. Maintaining vaccines, sterilizing them, keeping them safe, and loving them is the basis for the trust set-up by adopting from our Shelter.
Right now we have 12 kittens that were abandoned in the past 3 weeks into garbage cans and the street and 4 adult cats thrown away because they became sick, blind and injured. No one wants them! If you had 4 friends that wanted kittens (you told me before that all your friends had pets and did not want anymore) why did you not refer them to us to give kittens too? Instead you doomed these ones to possibly a lifetime in a small cage.
Your email, no matter how well intentioned, has ruined my Sunday and I will share this information with others so they can learn from your selfishness.
***
I particularly like the Albert Einstein quote under the email she sent. Obviously, learning from the past mistakes does not apply to her actions.
I wonder if everyone is getting as weary as I am reading about ‘good home wanted’ for the daily dozens of cats and dogs (kittens and puppies respectively) that are posted in this blog, websites, on Facebook, everywhere! Even the Freecycle Recycling Yahoo! group has postings!
It appears that we, the people who care, are doing everything we can to get the message out there about finding homes but what about sterilization of these animals? I find the costs associated with sterilizing a dog/cat in Greece is prohibitive. Anywhere from 75e-125e per animal. This is literally twice the fee as in Canada where annual salaries are double+ those here. Even as an animal welfare charity we are not seeing much charity from Vets. We are still raising about 110euros (including follow-up antibiotics) per animal we sterilize. I think it outrageous our charity is literally only saving 10-15e over the cost for the public. I guess the concept of ‘charity’ is lost on many who work within this field.
For many vets I think it is a matter of economics (and to others it is complacency “Why find new clients when the animal people bring me enough business each month” kind of mentality). I believe that people in Greece do not take their animals to the vet as often as they should (as evidenced by the daily afternoon closures of practices, limited weekend hours, non-existence of 24 hour Emergency Clinics or even a practice busy enough to have a mandatory appointment policy) and when something serious happens there is a greater chance the animal will be abandoned rather than treated.
A steady clientele is probably hard to maintain and like any small business, repeat clientele is key. A charity like Filozoikos NF can offer something very valuable to a veterinary practice in exchange for more ‘consumer-friendly’ sterilizing: New Clients! For every positive experience a new pet owner has with a Vet, a new client is created and if treated fairly will be a client for many years to come.
I hope that pet owners in Athens will forward to me the names, mobiles, and email addresses of the Vet that they use (and recommend!) so that I can contact them to see if they wish to participate in this Vets4Change project. No one’s name will be published or made public in any way. This is to be a private referral system between the Filozoikos and the individual based on how generous they can afford to be. We do not mind driving animals all over the city or even bringing 2 or 3 at a time (we have a big van), at this point we will do what we have to to get these animals sterilized and make it the most convenient for the Vet. We have time, cars, patience, a place for aftercare. What we do not have is the money to be paying full fee!
I am hopeful that successful practices can afford to give at least 2 free sterilizing’s per month and new or struggling practices can offer reduced fees on at least 2 sterilizations a month to gain new clients and develop relationships.
Below is an announcement that I have been sending to Greek/English media in hopes that some will publish it. Please feel free to send it off to anyone you associate with.
****
Filozoikos Nea Filadelphia, registered Greek charity #25700, is seeking to create a list of Greek/English speaking veterinarians who wish to contribute time and skills to a more ‘consumer-friendly’ sterilization system. We believe that unreasonable sterilizing fees are responsible for the number of strays on our cities streets and directly contribute to the annual poisonings and abandonments that occur. If you wish to make a difference, please email vets4change@friendsofanimals-nf.com and let’s start talking!
Ο Φιλοζωικός της Νέας Φιλαδέλφειας, φιλοζωικό σωματείο με αρ. #25700, επιθυμεί να συντάξει κατάλογο με κτηνιάτρους που να μιλούν Ελληνικά και Αγγλικά και θα ήθελαν να συνεισφέρουν με το χρόνο και τις γνώσεις τους σε ένα πιο φιλικό σύστημα στειρώσεων. Πιστεύουμε ότι οι υπερβολικά υψηλές χρεώσεις για τις στειρώσεις είναι ένας από τους λόγους που πολλά ζώα καταλήγουν στους δρόμους ως αδέσποτα και ως εκ τούτου συνεισφέρουν στις δηλητηριάσεις και τις εγκαταλείψεις που προκύπτουν κάθε χρόνο. Εάν θέλετε να κάνετε τη διαφορά, παρακαλώ επικοινωνήστε στο vets4change@friendsofanima
ls-nf.com και ας συζητήσουμε.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
GREEK AUTHORITIES DENY THAT ANIMALS ARE TREATED BADLY IN GREECE! Have your say!!
18 July 2008
Mr S. Efstathopoulos
Secretary General of Tourism
The Ministry of Tourism
Tsoxa
115 21 Athens
Greece
Dear Mr Efstathopoulos
It has come to my attention that a standard reply letter has been prepared and is sent to those who write to the Greek Tourist Organisation, about animal neglect or abuse they have seen while on holiday in Greece. Unfortunately this reply is causing as much, if not more, concern among tourists as the original episode that prompted them to write to you in the first place. Tourists who take the time and effort to write about animal welfare issues in Greece are looking for assistance and a solution, not a standard reply, and they are now contacting Greek Animal Rescue (GAR) UK, to help with these same problems.
I would like to address a few points raised in your letter to tourists; you write:
*** Dear ……………..
Following your email of June 6, 2008, we would like to inform you that there is already a legal framework in Greece aiming to the elimination of incidences of animal abuse. Laws 1197/1981 and 3170/2003 comprise regulations both for companion animal welfare and for the protection of (stray) animals and provide for penalties in case of infringement. In addition, our country has ratified the European Convention for the protection of pet animals of 1987 by law 2017/1992.
All of the above is correct, in theory but, with all due respect, the laws are not being implemented.
For your information, I founded GAR to help animals in Greece following a very distressing holiday in 1987. I visit Greece on a regular basis (to visit some of those we support) and I am only too familiar with what is happening ‘on the ground’.
*** According to law 3170/2003, the Ministry of Rural Development and Food is responsible for the protection of animals in our country. Local Authorities are in charge of the management of the state of stray animals within the scope of their competence. The measures taken include identification and registration of stray animals, veterinary examination, vaccination and sterilisation as well as veterinary attention and care of ill or injured animals. In addition, the electronic identification of owned animals and the control of their reproduction activity is obligatory. The obligations of pet owners include, inter alia, the welfare of their animals, their annual medical exams etc. The owners who do not comply with the Law are punished with fines, or, depending on the offence, with six months imprisonment.
I am also very familiar with law 3170/2003 and again, while it looks good on paper, in reality it is not being implemented. Only 28 out of 400 plus Municipalities in Greece run sterilisation programmes for stray dogs. There is no official body or Municipality which regulates or implements the obligatory identification and microchipping of either stray or owned dogs and it is estimated that fewer than 5% of owned dogs are microchipped (and none of the stray dogs). This is a great pity, as this simple measure would ensure that many fewer dogs would be abandoned on Greek streets. If it were accompanied by campaigns to encourage the sterilisation of owned animals then the number of animals, especially puppies, abandoned on the streets would be drastically reduced.
Even a simple measure linking hunting licences to compulsory registration and microchipping of hunting dogs would go a long way to reducing the stray population.
There are approximately 270,000 registered hunters in Greece and probably almost as many who are not registered. Many hunters have up to 10 dogs and those dogs who prove unsuitable for hunting or who are elderly, are regularly abandoned on the streets.
You say that: “dog owners who don’t comply with the Law are punished with fines …” I would like to learn of even one instance of a dog owner being punished for not having his dog microchipped. It simply does not happen. However, I could give you hundreds of examples and photographic evidence of ‘owned’ dogs that have been abandoned including puppies and kittens. Animals that are simply thrown into rubbish bins or any other convenient receptacle, not to mention the tens of thousands of stray and owned dogs and cats (and the non intended victims like birds and other wildlife) that are poisoned annually.
*** As regards the promotion of ethical behaviour, the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food, in cooperation with official animal welfare associations, coordinates the education of citizens on the issue, through the organisation of seminars for pet owners, trainers or traders. The above activities are financed by the Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Here, unfortunately, the situation is even more tragic.The Ministry of Rural Development and Food has no contact with animal welfare organisations in Greece. I can refer you to the two largest animal welfare federations in Greece (Coalition in Defence of Animals in Greece and the Panhellenic Animal Welfare Federation should you wish to confirm this). There are no ’seminars for pet owners, trainers and traders’ and every week hundreds of new animals are imported into Greek pet shops, having been raised in appalling conditions in Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian puppy farms.
*** You should know, however, that in order to initiate legal proceedings against offenders or proceed to recommendations towards the Local Authorities and the citizens of the local society regarding their obligations towards companion animals as well as the penalties incurred by non-compliance with the relative provisions, you need to produce detailed information concerning the exact place and time of the incident so that the competent Veterinary Authorities can take the matter in hand.
In my experience, incidents of cruelty and neglect are simply ignored by the police or to whoever they are reported to. I have experienced this many times personally and tourists report similar experiences when they try to find somebody in authority to help them with such matters. The most common response is that they are laughed at and in many cases they are simply told ‘this is how we do things here’. It is enough evidence that they write to you.
Tourists also complain to us about the general living conditions for animals - undernourished dogs kept chained 24 hours a day, donkeys and cows hobbled and tethered in open fields with no shade or water. I can provide you with photographic evidence of all I write about. Need I tell you about the plight of the donkeys on Santorini, about which the UK national newspaper Daily Express ran a 10 day long campaign, during which time their reporter was threatened by the owners of donkeys.
***Realizing the importance of the issue, the Ministry of Tourism plans to highlight to the Ministry of Economy and Finance the need to increase financing for the protection of animals. We assure you that we go to great lengths in order to minimize unacceptable phenomena such as those you have been describing.
With all due respect, ill-treatment and neglect of animals in Greece is more than a ‘phenomenon’. It is a daily fact of life. Again, I can send you numerous photos of abused and neglected animals and I have background information (date, place etc) on each of them. Surely you have heard about 9 dogs found hanged on one tree in the tourist resort of Kardamena, Kos, in March 2008, or the recent poisoning of at least 12 dogs and a number of cats in Chania, Crete.
*** Greek citizens as well as the country’s Authorities expressly condemn the ill-treatment of animals. However, isolated incidents of animal abuse should not call into question the continuous effort of our country to achieve a fully satisfactory level of animal protection and welfare.
Forgive me, but incidents of animal abuse are most certainly not ‘isolated cases’. It may also interest you to know that at least 80% of animal welfare/rescue work in Greece is funded by ‘foreign’ organisations, such as ours (Greek Animal Rescue), Graeske Hunde in Denmark, several German societies which help animals from Corfu in the north to Crete in the south. Our organisation alone spends on average 150,000€ per year on animal welfare / rescue work in Greece, subsidising neutering etc.
I apologise for the length of my letter, Mr Efstathopoulos, but I had to comment on what I consider an inaccurate description of the state of animal welfare and of how Greek laws designed to protect animals are not being implemented. The reality is tragic and the sooner we acknowledge this, then the sooner we can all work together to achieve real changes and improve the lives of not only companion animals but all animals in Greece.
Our organisation, Greek Animal Rescue, and our colleagues in other European countries are willing to help as much as possible and would welcome co-operation with the Ministry of Tourism. We have considerable experience in helping tourists with the problems they encounter with animals. We also have contacts all over Greece both among animal welfare workers and veterinary surgeons. In addition, I suggest you contact and work with the two major Animal welfare Federations who are also extremely willing to assist you.
Η Πανελλήνια Φιλοζωική Ομοσπονδία
τηλ: 6946502096, φαξ:210-7291310, email: info@pfo.gr
Ομοσπονδία για τα Δικαιώματα των Ζώων (CIDAG),
τηλ. 6932091666, info@argosgr.org
In turn, we would welcome your advice on clear simple procedures that tourists can follow, should they witness acts of animal cruelty or abandonment– perhaps a form they can complete and submit to the relevant authority, but this authority must be accessible in all of Greece and there must be a follow-up of the complaints, which should be reported back to the complainant.
I know from many of our members that they now avoid Greece as a holiday destination because they cannot face the cruelty and disregard for animals they witness or the huge number of abandoned animals who wander the streets.
There are simple measures such as sterilisation of owned animals and microchipping that would change the situation to a large degree. It is a great pity that a beautiful country and a wonderful holiday destination is marred by lack of interest in animal welfare, but I am sure it is possible to change this situation and we offer you all our support in any way you require it. I look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
Vesna Jones (Founder/President)
cc: Mr A. Spiliotopoulos
Mr K. Kilkidis
Mr A. Oikonomou
Copied here from http://www.garcanada.bizland.com/id7.html, an excellent website for the reality of Greek animal welfare.
Written by Kiki K.
Today (June 20th) a female dog with 8 puppies was chained in a tree in the NF park with a bowl of water and some boiled rice for food. We took her and 2 of the puppies to the shelter. She is too skinny and has dermatological problems. Two of the other puppies disappeared before taking them - someone must have taken them. The other 4 are fostered by a young lady who picked the male ones. She is going to keep them in her summer house and try to find them homes, but if she doesn’t manage to give them all she is willing to adopt them.
This is Mama Hera and her daughters Athena and Artemis. Athena has the colour of champagne and has one blue eye and one brown eye. Artemis is the sleepy little brown one. They are 1.5 months old. Artemis has dermatological problems also.
These puppies will be available for adoption at 3 months but you are all welcome to come and visit and make a promise to adopt when they are old enough.
Thanasis, Mao the Chow, Fotini, Xena
Xena has taken up residence with Mao the Chow and is loving her new freedom. We wish her all the best!
