Municipal and coast guard police confiscate legally obtained animal transport documents
and seize the animals bound for qualified homes in Europe and North America. According
to reports from Greece the care and control of the confiscated animals are placed in boarding facilities which are on the government payroll. At the same time, boarding bills for the animals are also allegedly issued to the rescue societies.

An Abuse of Position
Reports from humane volunteers in Greece indicate that Ministry of Agriculture veterinarian, Ms Chryssa Dile, a state employee and a small committee headed by private citizens Ms. Ioanna Garagouni and Mrs. Popi Baka are alegedly threatening private and state veterinarians who participate in "pet passport" programs with loss of license. These vets are actually afraid to come forward.

Nationwide, city mayors who cooperate with animal welfare societies are pressured to decline requests for pet travel documents, necessary for animal transport to adoptive families within the European Union and America.

According to reports Garagouni, Popi Baka and their thankfully, small band of followers, are convinced that the country's abandoned dogs wind up as sausage links or on a vivisection table and that humane advocates are bank rolling profits. According to advocates in Greece, it appears their paranoia knows no bounds and they seems hell bent on destroying any semblance of animal welfare in Greece. 

Greece came under close scrutiny by the press and consequently came under fire during a problem ridden 2004 Athens Olympics. It was reported that thousands of abandoned dogs and cats were poisoned or had vanished during an alleged nationwide house cleaning effort to "tidy" Olympic venues.

As a result of news reports outraged animal lovers and some humane organizations from around the world called for a boycott of the games. Furious Greek officials who spent staggering sums of tax payers money on the Olympic spectacle scrambled to deny charges of wrongdoing. They put their global public relations machine in forward gear in a last ditch attempt to preserve their "Olympic" image.
 
Some advocates in Greece, Europe and the USA now wonder if the Greek government is somehow involved and is exacting payback. Witnesses to and victims of this "campaign" to cripple animal welfare also allege that millions of euros earmarked to sterilize, vaccinate, treat and house the tens of thousands of homeless pets have disappeared along with the four legged victims of what many call a cruel and brutal "Olympic" sideshow.

European organizations are pulling funding for Greek shelters, clinics, spay/neuter programs and costly re homing programs as their representatives and volunteers are harassed, ridiculed, sued and jailed. We spoke with several attorneys and humane workers in Greece and they express fear. They hesitate to speak candidly to the press for fear of backlash. It appears that Greek officials allegedly involved in the alleged harassment campaign have covered their "paw prints".

  Officials respond to questions from probing journalists with well rehearsed political rhetoric that
  distorts the day to day reality experienced by Greek and foreign humane workers. One can almost
  be convinced that the crippling and destructive claims are true.
 
  But, they decidedly are not! As a result of this campaign, the battle waged to enhance animal
  welfare in Greece a country once known as "The Cradle of Civilization", has come to a virtual
  standstill amongst increasing hostilities and bold faced lies.

  Animal advocates insist that theirs is an ethical movement that recognizes the consequences of
  human violence. They have a finely honed sense of moral obligation and state that their goal is to
  shift awareness and awaken compassion in a nation long overdue for animal welfare reform.

  The animals cannot demand justice but the media can--simply by disclosing the truth. It is time for Greece to raise its standard of animal welfare with modern, sufficiently managed shelters that
  maintain veterinary supervision, mandatory neutering, microchip identification , fair and responsible
  policies for re homing animals within Greece and abroad, prosecution and punishment for animal
  related crimes.

No animal deserves to languish in filth and desperation only to die miserably in the street or in the country's Auschwitz like pet shops. No humane advocate deserves to be harassed, humiliated, frightened half to death and jailed.

Humane workers and volunteers urge the Greek, American and European press to investigate actions aimed at paralyzing their rescue efforts, bring pressure to bear upon the Greek government to cease it's merciless campaign and to bring their plight and the plight of the helpless animals they strive to protect to the attention of readers and viewers worldwide.

Savy tourists from around the world, will not be attracted to this shady side of sunny Greece.

Perhaps a global outcry from compassionate people everywhere will catalyze change in a nation determined to undermine all humane efforts.

(Contact information for those directors of humane organizations and their volunteers in Greece, the UK, USA, Germany, Belgium and Denmark, willing to speak to the press, are available upon request!)