Filenews 28 January 2023 - by Angelos Nicolaou
Outside the spirit of the law is the opinion of the Legal Service on the destruction of feeding areas for strays, on the basis of which the Police do not examine complaints if they concern places designated by citizens and not by local authorities. This is what the president of the Association for the Protection and Welfare of Cats, Dinos Agiomamitis, argues to "F", after the uproar caused as a result of the circular sent by the Veterinary Services on 24.01.2023 to the competent veterinary offices for information and implementation of the provisions of the legislation as interpreted in an opinion of the Legal Service to the Police.
According to Mr. Agiomamitis, the animal welfare organizations directly affected by the opinion called on their members to continue feeding the stray animals and in case they fall victim to people that destroy the containers with food and water, to make a complaint to the Police. The complaint, he noted, should be made in writing, regardless of whether the Police proceed to examine them on the basis of the misinterpretation of the law given by the Legal Service. It is noted that in the opinion dated. 02.12.2022 it is stated that "the withdrawal and destruction of any containers with food and water placed by citizens in any unspecified place, is not an offence. According to the Legal Service "the ban concerns only the places designated by the competent local authorities for feeding and drinking stray animals".
Asked to refer to the next steps of the voluntary organizations, Mr. Agiomamitis said that a meeting with the General Prosecutor will be sought to see if he intends to modify his opinion. Otherwise, he said, all organizations nationwide will coordinate to carry out a mobilization. He noted that they are in contact with MPs to amend the legislation to make it clearer, since while the Plenary notes that the purpose of the proposed amendments is to clarify that the feeding and drinking of stray animals will be allowed in places that may be designated by the competent local authorities or in other places, however, it was not included in the final text of the legislation.
"It is obvious that he means the places where there are gatherings of stray cats cared for by volunteers. It is therefore clear that the legislator wanted to make it a criminal offence to destroy the feeding areas for strays, whether they are designated by the local authorities or by the volunteers of the animal welfare organizations that care for the strays", notes Mr. Agiomamitis.
He noted, however, that the Parliament is expected to reopen after the presidential elections and until a proposal is submitted and consulted, this amendment is not expected to be voted on before the summer. Until then, he noted, I very much fear that we will have to deal with incidents of confrontation and bickering with incalculable consequences.
