The importance of neutering

Stray cats and dogs are abundant in Greece, and it is not uncommon to see large groups of them in the streets. This is even more evident in built-up areas, where animals can often be seen congregating near restaurants and in parks.

However, while on the surface you see a group of cute animals relaxing, there lurks a deeper problem underneath. Most of these animals are condemned to a life on the streets – constantly scavenging for food, and often suffering from starvation or disease. When a stray is injured, it has no one to look after it, meaning it may spend the rest of its life with a broken or infected leg, or suffer a painful death as a consequence of the injury.

Tragically, it isn’t uncommon for us to come across unwanted kittens and puppies dumped in litter bins, scared and left to die.

What can we do?

The good news is that the stray problem can be dealt with effectively, with simple neutering programmes. By stopping the stray population from spiralling out of the control, over time the number of strays on the streets is greatly reduced. This mean fewer animals living on the streets, struggling to find food. It also takes the strain off undernourished mothers, who are too weak to care for large numbers of offspring. Neutering also causes males to become less aggressive and less likely to get into fights with other animals, which could lead to injury.

Happy and neutered

GAWF helps in two ways:

• Organising neutering programmes – we work to neuter strays in specific areas, after which they are released back into to the same area. This generally prevents new animals from colonising in the area and reproducing.
• Education – we work with the local communities, showing them how to look after strays and ensure that stray populations do not get out of control. We find that in areas where the community looks after the street animals, incidents of cruelty and poisoning are rare.

How can you help?

Your donations help fund the neutering programmes, and give us the resources we need to educate local communities. We work with friendly vets and have managed to get the cost of neutering right down to just £30. Your donations are vitally needed and together we can:
• Reduce illness in strays, by vaccinating them
• Prevent animals from starving, by controlling their populations
• Ease the strain on undernourished mothers, who are too weak to care for their offspring
• Reduce cruelty towards strays by educating local communities
• Treat injured, ill, or poisoned animals who would otherwise have no one to look after them.

Please donate today, and make a difference to the lives of these beautiful, innocent animals. Thank you. For more about our neutering programme click here.

Taking the law into their own hands

By Anna Stamatiou

The economic crisis is having far-reaching consequences at all levels of Greek society.  In the field of animal welfare it is clear that less weight is being given to all kinds of issues.  It has almost become politically incorrect to demand of the police that they should spend increasingly scarce resources to prosecute animal abusers, check on conditions for animals in transit, attend a report of a permanently tethered dog… or seek to identify and bring to justice a neighbourhood poisoner.


English: It's only a matter of time until we find you

 Ordinary, caring citizens as well as committed welfare activists have become enraged by the state’s failures, and this has led to increasing incidents of direct action, or vigilantism.  Graffiti have been appearing at the entrances to buildings where poisoners are thought to live.  These scrawled messages can be as nasty and threatening as those that the UK saw in 2000 when the News of the World “named and shamed” individuals thought to be guilty of child abuse, and baying mobs gathered outside the houses of sometimes innocent people in the city of Portsmouth. 

 This trend means that normally law-abiding people are being driven to behave in illegal ways (making threats and defacing property) and that the potentially innocent may be wrongly accused and persecuted.  It must be hell for the residents of the affected apartment blocks. 
Why do people go out and poison strays in the first place?  Online welfare sites in Greece are full of purple language fulminating against the “perverts” and “psychos” that carry out indiscriminate poisoning.   I have never seen any attempt at a balanced assessment of motivations other than these, and until there is one the root causes of such illegal and barbaric acts will never be successfully addressed.  Why, can’t the welfare community sensibly discuss the problems that both strays and owned cats and dogs can cause?  What about the poo-covered pavements?  The endless all night barking of confined dogs?  Attacks by packs or bad-tempered individual dogs on both pets and people?  The strewing of stinky detritus all over the street when rubbish bags are torn open by scavenging animals?  The fear of communicable disease that is only strengthened by the sight of unkempt, unhealthy-looking animals?





English: Murderer of animals - we have found you

Greece needs to deal with the problem of its strays in a more honest and focussed way… numbers need to be managed, and dangerous dogs should be taken off the street permanently.  Neutering helps with this but it isn’t a complete solution.  In an ideal world there would be no strays at all on the streets.  Tolerating even low numbers of them communicates the wrong message:  “It is okay for cats and dogs that no one takes responsibility for to be here”.  Actually, no, it’s not.  All cats and dogs should be owned and taken responsibility for, they should be properly cared for in sickness and in health for the whole of their lives, and prevented from causing nuisance and from producing unwanted litters of kittens and pups.  Until Greek society “gets it” incidents of mass poisonings look likely to continue.  

GAWF Equine Project

GAWF’s Equine Project was started in 1999, with the goal of alleviating the suffering of horses, donkeys and mules in Greece.

Working equines are common in Greece, and their numbers have increased in recent years. Rising unemployment has resulted in many workers relocating from cities to more rural areas, where equines are frequently used for agriculture. In less developed of Greece where there are no roads, equines are sometimes the only means of transporting produce around.

These rural areas often lack the vital resources required to keep equines healthy and happy, such as local farriers (hoof care specialists), dental technicians and vets. 

In addition, many owners are unaware of the how to care for their animals, or they simply don’t realise the level of maintenance they require.  Common problems we come across are:

• Hobbling - restrictive binding of the animal's legs, to prevent it from wandering too far. Unbeknownst to a lot of owners, this can cause pain and serious health problems such as fractures, dislocations and tendon injuries
• Severe tendonitis, bruised soles and foot abscesses.
• Overgrown, twisted or diseased hooves - often a result of heavy work on hard ground, or overfeeding. Again, owners often do not know how to spot these afflictions.
• Dental problems - left unchecked, equines can develop sharp edges on their molars, which cut their mouths and make eating difficult. This can develop into severe health problems, pain, and even death from starvation or blood loss if an artery is severed.
• Birth problems - just like humans, equines can develop life threatening problems during birth. When a trained vet is not present, there are risks for both mother and baby.

It is vital for the health and well-being of working equines in Greece that we are able to give care directly to these animals, and educate people on how to look after them. 
 

Taking Action

In the early days, we found that people were wary of our motives and suspicious of our credentials. How were people to know that we wouldn’t damage their animal’s feet and leave it lame and unable to work for weeks? Over time, we demonstrated that we have all the necessary training, professionalism and qualifications to help these animals, and we have built up a name that is well known and trusted throughout Greece.

How does GAWF help?

Your donations help by funding GAWF to:

• advise and instruct owners on how to care for their animals
• send outreach teams (usually an equine farrier, vet  and equine dentist) to visit equines
• offer treatment to over 1,250 equines every year, including 100’s of life-saving procedures
• train Greek veterinary students and fund courses for them in Greece and the UK
• provide instructional materials and training guides for those working in the field.

Please help us to continue by donating on our website. We desperately need funds to continue our Equine Project, so we can not only prevent equine suffering, but ensure that many poor people in Greece are able to make a living during the economic slump.

The Acropolis Crew

by Anna Stamatiou

As a Trustee of GAWF/Animal Action who lives in Athens, I have daily first-hand experience of what life on the streets is like for stray dogs in the city centre.

Sotiris, Kessaras, Goofy, Prokopis, Liza and Brave hang out where the buses that empty loads of tourists coming to visit the Acropolis stop.  They guard their territory with passion, and have developed certain behaviours that may be unique to the packs that live at archaeological sites all over Greece.  For instance, they will temporarily adopt and “shepherd” groups of tourists, walking along with them and guarding them from any other dog, and even from passing joggers! Their freewheeling lifestyle has its highs and lows and they definitely add “a certain something” to the experience of taking a walk on Philopappos hill!

Sotiris

Sotiris is the cranky leader of the pack.  Every afternoon he watches out for the ladies that come to feed him and the rest of the crew.  You don’t want to approach him when they are around, as he is likely to snarl and snap.  Prokopis is usually mild mannered – except when he spots my dog, Jelhi, who he has taken a particular dislike to.  Even though I regularly bribe him with a little treat, he is always keen to chase her off his patch, and poor Jelhi watches out for him and gives him as wide a berth as she can.  If he spots her, there is a flurry of large blackness seeing off some rather pathetic, whiteness amid lots of noise, but never any real damage.  Shaggy, grey Goofy used to be a playful pup but now he has become a bit of a loner.  Poor Liza got run over by a car, and for a long time couldn’t put one of her feet to the ground, as it was so badly mashed. 

Brave

 Brave is a fringe member of the Crew, as he has adopted the kiosk that stands a little further along the pedestrianised walkway, as his home territory.  Hugely thick-coated and round as a barrel, he doesn’t seem to mind sleeping out in the rain at all.

We often think of strays in Athens as hungry, bony waifs but the Acropolis Crew is very well (over) fed by a self-appointed team of caring, local ladies.  My two dogs have discovered the places where the ladies leave the dried food they bring, and it’s an everyday battle to keep them away from any leftovers.  The Crew knows where there are taps that drip even in the Summer.  So its basic needs are met.

Goofy

The system breaks down when veterinary care for strays is needed.  Liza’s horrible injury went untreated for days, while elderly Jack, now no longer with us, had the most enormous tumour, the size of a football, under his chin, which no one would take responsibility for.  Local opinion was fiercely divided.  Some people wanted to see him operated on, others felt he should be gently put down, still others felt nature should be allowed to take its course.  In the end he was taken to the vet – far too late – and an operation was carried out.  Jack didn’t survive the strain of it. 

On the upside, all these dogs are free to come and go as they please, but I’m not looking forward to the next time one of them needs treatment for any serious condition.

Please visit www.gawf.org.uk and make a donation to help us save dogs like poor Jack in future.

Introduction to GAWF

Introduction to GAWF

What is GAWF?

GAWF is an animal welfare charity based in London, England and Athens, Greece. It was started in 1959 by Eleanor Close. The aim of the charity is to provide protection and care for animals in Greece. This is a huge task as there are many animals in need of help, such as stray cats and dogs, abandoned pets, working animals and farm animals. 

Vitally Needed

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the economy of Greece has suffered a major decline. Many people can no longer afford to care for their pets properly. Large numbers of stray cats and dogs roam the streets of Greece, hungry and often suffering from disease. Animal shelters, neutering programmes and adoptions are desperately needed to provide for these poor animals. 

Because of the economy, many people have moved away from the cities to rural areas, relying on working animals such as horses to make a living. Many equine owners do not have the resources or knowledge to look after these animals properly.

   

Animal farming conditions are also a serious concern in Greece. While some progress has been made in improving animal welfare legislation, many farms and slaughterhouses are still not properly regulated. There are vast numbers of animals suffering in terrible living conditions as a result.

How we can help

Stray animal welfare

Anyone who has been in a Greek city is aware of the many stray cats and dogs. These animals are condemned to a life on the streets, malnourished and treated like vermin. We have a social responsibility to help these poor homeless animals.

We can make a real difference to the stray problem, with simple neutering programmes. Neutering reduces overpopulation, and eases the strain on weak mothers who cannot handle raising too many offspring.

Your donations help to fund neutering, and provide vaccinations from disease. You can also help us to educate local communities in how to provide and care for these animals responsibly. Even a small donation can make a real difference to the lives of stray cats and dogs.

Care for Horses and Donkeys
  
Working equines are common in Greece, and they are relied upon heavily for transporting agricultural produce in rural areas.

Sadly, many equine owners do not have the resources to adequately care for horses and donkeys. Common problems we come across are twisted hooves, tendonitis, bruised soles, and foot abscesses. These can cause the animal a lot of pain and lead to serious injury. 

Equines also require regular dentistry. Left unchecked, their teeth can develop conditions which cause the animal severe pain, problems eating, and even fatal blood loss.

With your donations, we are able to arrange outreach visits to treat horses – vital in remote areas where there are no local veterinary services (or where the owners are to poor to afford care). The money that you give also enables us to train equine owners to look after their animals correctly, and to recognise and prevent injury.

Farm animals: born into a life of suffering

While animal legislation exists in Greece, these laws are not high priority for the government – meaning many farms and slaughterhouses are not properly monitored or inspected.

As a result, many animals are raised in horrific living conditions:

•  Chickens are kept in cages where they are unable to move, keeping them in a state of constant pain for their entire lives. They may die a slow painful death in overcrowded cages, where their corpses are not noticed.
• Distressed hens attack and even cannibalise each other, and live out their lives with painful injuries and infections. 
• Pigs are often castrated without any anaesthetic.
• Sows live without any bedding, and without any room to turn over or move.
• Cattle have no regulation, meaning many live with illness or injury, and are unable to graze or express their natural behaviours.
    
  

We aim to improve this situation by lobbying the Greek government, and by campaigning to raise public awareness of farm animal suffering. Your donations pay for the vital resources needed for this. Please help us to stop the suffering of millions of farm animals by donating today.

  

Other Activities

•  We run a veterinary care fund, which aims to help people who can no longer afford to care for their pets - essential to a country with so few animal shelters.
• Adoption programmes - for those that would like to help first hand with animal rescue. For more details, head over to our Facebook page to see our virtual animal shelter. 
• Education strategies - educating the public is an important part of improving animal welfare in Greece. Distributing leaflets, arranging seminars and visiting schools are just some of the efforts we make. 

We desperately need your help to continue working for animal protection in Greece. Every penny we receive helps to relieve the suffering of these beautiful innocent creatures – the forgotten victims of the economic crisis.

Please donate today, and help ease the suffering of millions of helpless animals.