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.