Greeks to poison up to 15,000 stray dogs before the Olympics

[Guest guest]

This is terrible news.

 

news.telegraph.comBy David Harrison

(Filed: 11/07/2004)

 

Thousands of stray dogs will be poisoned ahead of next month's

Olympic Games in Athens despite a campaign by the RSPCA to prevent

their slaughter

 

The animal welfare charity says that the strays will be killed

because the Greek authorities fear that the sight of packs of dogs

roaming the streets will damage their efforts to use the Games to

show the world that their country is modern and civilised.

 

There are an estimated 15,000 stray dogs in Athens and although the

government has taken some action to remove them from the streets

without killing them, the RSPCA says that local authorities will not

have the resources or the commitment to round up the animals and keep

them in shelters during the Games.

 

Officially, the Greek authorities say that there will be no mass

poisoning and the Athens Olympics Committee has asked animal welfare

groups to help round up the dogs.

 

There are however, only one or two shelters in Athens that can take

dogs and they are already overcrowded, so the Greeks face a choice of

leaving the dogs roaming the streets during the Olympics or poisoning

them.

 

Greece's fledgling animal welfare groups said that the mass slaughter

of strays had already begun. Eighty dogs were recently found dead in

the coastal resort of Saronida, where some members of the British

team are expected to stay.

 

One animal welfare activist said: " There has been a big increase in

poisonings recently and we expect it to rise sharply as the Games get

closer. We are doing what we can, with a lot of help from

international organisations such as the RSPCA, but we are fighting

against a culture that is deeply entrenched. " The RSPCA has

campaigned hard to improve animal welfare in Greece and in particular

to end the practice of poisoning strays to control their numbers.

 

The Greek government has expressed a desire to give more protection

to animals and introduced tougher laws last year. Antonia

Kanellopoulou, the deputy mayor of Athens, said: " Stray animals need

our love. "

 

The legislation has, however, had little effect and the RSPCA says

that many local authorities in Athens and other areas hosting Olympic

events will use the traditional method of poisoning the animals to

clear the streets before the Games begin on August 13.

 

 

full story:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?

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Doctors who speak out in favour of vivisection do not deserve any

recognition in society, all the more so since their brutality is

apparent not only during such experiments, but also in their

practical medical lives. They are mostly men who stop at nothing in

order to satisfy their ruthless and unfeeling lust for honours and

gainn.

--Dr. med. Hugo Knecht, Ear, Nose, Throat and Chest Specialist, Linz,

October 5, 1909

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