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News :: Animal Rights

Greeks to poison up to 15,000 stray dogs before the Olympics

Thousands of stray dogs will be poisoned ahead of next month's Olympic Games
in Athens despite a campaign by the RSPCA to prevent their slaughter.
The animal welfare charity says that the strays will be killed because the
Greek authorities fear that the sight of packs of dogs roaming the streets
will damage their efforts to use the Games to show the world that their
country is modern and civilised.
There are an estimated 15,000 stray dogs in Athens and although the
government has taken some action to remove them from the streets without
killing them, the RSPCA says that local authorities will not have the
resources or the commitment to round up the animals and keep them in
shelters during the Games.
Officially, the Greek authorities say that there will be no mass poisoning
and the Athens Olympics Committee has asked animal welfare groups to help
round up the dogs.
There are however, only one or two shelters in Athens that can take dogs and
they are already overcrowded, so the Greeks face a choice of leaving the
dogs roaming the streets during the Olympics or poisoning them.
Greece's fledgling animal welfare groups said that the mass slaughter of
strays had already begun. Eighty dogs were recently found dead in the
coastal resort of Saronida, where some members of the British team are
expected to stay.
One animal welfare activist said: "There has been a big increase in
poisonings recently and we expect it to rise sharply as the Games get
closer. We are doing what we can, with a lot of help from international
organisations such as the RSPCA, but we are fighting against a culture that
is deeply entrenched." The RSPCA has campaigned hard to improve animal
welfare in Greece and in particular to end the practice of poisoning strays
to control their numbers.
The Greek government has expressed a desire to give more protection to
animals and introduced tougher laws last year. Antonia Kanellopoulou, the
deputy mayor of Athens, said: "Stray animals need our love."
The legislation has, however, had little effect and the RSPCA says that many
local authorities in Athens and other areas hosting Olympic events will use
the traditional method of poisoning the animals to clear the streets before
the Games begin on August 13.
David Bowles of RSPCA International, who recently returned from Athens where
RSPCA inspectors were training Greek officials to catch and treat strays
humanely, said: "We are seriously concerned that thousands of dogs will be
poisoned so that Greece can show that Athens is a pristine modern city. They
don't have the manpower or the shelters to round up all the dogs. A lot of
the local authorities simply don't know how to deal with dogs humanely. We
have put a lot of effort into helping them to change their ways, but the
results have been very patchy. We would like to see them using private
shelters so that all the dogs can be given homes during the Olympics but it
looks like that is not going to happen."
Mr Bowles said that mass poisoning was "barbaric" and a "short-term fix"
that would not solve the problem of strays. Another senior RSPCA official
said: "Greece's success in the European football championships in Portugal
and now hosting the Olympic Games has undoubtedly boosted its prestige.
"They are desperate to make a success of the Games coming back to where they
started. But they cannot call themselves civilised if they continue to
poison dogs."
Carol McBeth, the director of the London-based Greek Animal Welfare Fund,
said that she was concerned about many areas outside the centre of Athens.
"I think we may see poisonings in the places where the cycling, football and
equestrian events are being held," she said.
"They will be very keen to make sure that those areas are clear and they
don't have shelters for the dogs."
Poisoning animals is a criminal offence in Greece, but it is such a
traditional method of controlling the stray population that many local
authorities turn a blind eye to the practice and actively engage in it
themselves.
Greece does not have the same tradition of caring for pets as Britain and
many animals are dumped when owners become bored with them. It is illegal to
have animals put down in Greece and there is no tradition of taking in
strays.
The problem has been made worse by a "macho mentality" that finds it
"unnatural" to neuter cats and dogs, although a neutering programme
introduced by the government has had some success in Athens.
Anastase Scopelitis, the Greek ambassador to London, who is in Greece on
holiday, was unavailable for comment. An embassy official said: "Greece
takes animal welfare seriously and our government has taken measures to
improve our standards."
 
 

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