Filenews 11 December 2021
A new incident of abuse and killing of dogs is reported through a statement by the members of the Movement of Ecologists Citizens' Cooperation. According to the complaint, a sad story is unfolding last Saturday concerning the tragic outcome of three small dogs and the abuse of others.
The announcement of the Movement
"From the information we have, a series of errors emerge from all the agencies involved that are responsible for the implementation of the welfare law.
On Saturday, a complaint was made to the monastery police station by a conscientious citizen, that in cages in Parekklisia there was a dead dog. In the cages there were other dogs but in terrible conditions.
The Monastery Police Station referred the citizen to the veterinary services and the animal police, while they knew that the veterinary services do not work weekends and the animal police are staffed only until 19:30.
After contacting the animal police on Sunday, they told the citizen that they would examine the incident on Monday when the veterinary services would be open to check the incident together. Finally the inspection was done on Monday and informed the "owner" to improve the conditions where the animals are staying. In our opinion, however, since there was a dead animal in the cage at least since Friday, the rest of the animals should be removed and taken to a veterinarian until the case was investigated by the competent authorities to avoid more unpleasant situations. Late in the evening the volunteers who went to see if anything was done from what the owner promised, saw tragic pictures and the other 2 little dogs died from the cold because they were simply left there to die.
On Tuesday the relevant authorities would go for a re-inspection but it was already too late.
In the effort of a rescuer to save the other dogs that were in this area that were in immediate danger of finding the same tragic end, since they had no protection from the weather conditions that prevailed in those days (rains, strong winds, cold, etc.) and having no response from the competent authorities, she managed to take the rest of the dogs to a safe place. At her own expense the dogs immediately went to a veterinarian who diagnosed that one dog had a high fever, was positive for Ehrlichiosis and leishmaniasis, and the second was malnourished. The rescuer tried to inform the vet clinic that the dogs are in her possession without any response. Also, the owner of the dogs handed over a dog that was tied to the tree in a shelter because he was afraid not to be fined since this is prohibited under the law on animal welfare.
Based on the information we have, it seems that the competent authorities have failed to ensure the health and welfare of animals in this case. They also come to denounce the volunteer that she stole the 2 dogs, something completely unacceptable because thanks to her the two other dogs were saved because otherwise we would have had 5 dogs dead and not 3. The tragedy of the case is that, despite the documented abuse of the dogs, the police are demanding that the rescuer return the dogs to the owner. Until today, however, the dogs remain with the rescuer because the owner does not know where to take them.
The head of the Animal Welfare Group of the Movement, Mrs. Anthi Mouzouri, said that "In our opinion, the veterinary services should immediately confiscate all animals on the property of this person, since the diagnosis of the veterinarian reports obvious abuse. In addition, the case must be brought to justice for causing death to animals and animal abuse and severe penalties must be imposed as provided for in the Welfare Act. We also demand that omissions, mistakes and negligence be investigated by the competent authorities for law enforcement and where there are responsibilities to be attributed. We clearly state that the Movement will stand by the rescuer because in this case the only thing she did was the obvious thing to save the lives of the other two dogs, something that the competent services should have done. This case is about souls and not about objects."
