Sunday April 4, 2004

Animal lovers fight over strays in the streets for Olympics

ATHENS: On planes, trains, trucks and buses, Greece's stray dogs are being transported to new homes abroad by animal advocates who fear the mutts may be harmed if left to roam the streets.

Packs of strays – an omnipresent site on Athens streets, parks and doorsteps – are a sensitive issue for officials sprucing up the city for the Aug. 13-29 Olympics and a subject of much debate.

Now some animal welfare activists, who worry the dogs may fall victim to Athens' eagerness to clean up the city, are using the Internet to match up the canines with potential owners throughout Europe.

“Everybody should be happy if these animals find a good home,'' says Silke Wrobel, a German-born resident living on the island of Crete, where she runs an animal shelter that sends strays to Germany.

Wrobel says her group, Noah's Little Ark, has sent about 3,000 animals abroad in 15 years and about 120 since the beginning of the year.

Though the mutts are finding new homes in Germany, Belgium, France and other countries around the world, other activists aren't convinced the so-called canine rescue route is the best solution for the strays, and fear the dogs could be used for laboratory testing or sold for their skins.

“There are fears, but there is no evidence ... We are totally against these missions,'' said Liana Alexandri, general director of the Greek Animal Welfare Association.

“Let someone prove to me that the thousands of animals that go to these countries, that there are families waiting to adopt Greece's mutts,'' adds Ioanna Garagouni, head of an animal rights umbrella organisation.

Until recently, organised programmes to protect animals were virtually nonexistent in Greece. Many dog owners can't bring themselves to sterilize them and often release them onto the streets.

And poison is commonly used to destroy homeless animals.

Just before Greece was to host the European Union Summit last year, there was a mysterious mass poisoning of 60 dogs in the city's largest park, The National Gardens.

Animal advocates are calling for a boycott of the games until Greeks “change their attitude toward the very low standard animal welfare,'' said Maryjo Gillis, head of the New York-based Welfare for Animals in Greece, who claims to represent dozens of animal welfare groups around the world.

Gerhard Henisch, a dentist who works with Wrobel and a group called Animal Friends in the southern town of Bad Duerrheim, Germany, helps place the animals when they arrive from Greece.

Potential owners “are of course investigated to make sure the animals are in good hands,'' Henisch said. “We're not trying to just stick the animal somewhere.'' – AP

News Poll

Latest Jobs from Star-Jobs

Latest from StarProperty