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GREECE
A Razor Sharp Reality
"Patriotic or national allegiance when dealing with the suffering of animals should play no role whatsoever in your positive actions for the good of the animals. They sadly live within the borders of inhumanity!" Marijo Anne Gillis
In spite of Greece's seductive focus on alluring images of pristine, sandy beaches, sacred antiquities and expensive, global, fantasy public relations campaigns, brutality exists in the shadows, the back alleys and the local garbage dumps where animals are tossed like putrid trash to die; suffering and alone.
Too many farmed animals are exploited and cast aside like vermin when their years of "production" have come to an end. Most Greek abbatoirs (slaughterhouses) are never examined by authorities for killing with compassion and animals for food are brutally slaughtered. Greek abbatoirs are a vision of hell.
Tormented, living and "dead" illustrations of cruelty and neglect are everywhere! Is it not time to call a spade a spade?
Obviously choosing not to lead by example, Greece has clearly pitched the prestige of her ancient and glorious past to the "dogs".
When we were discussing the situation in Greece, a very urbane, well traveled and intelligent friend in Australia stated: "Greece slips under the radar, but their conduct is every bit as bad as any third world country - Rwanda with Retsina!" ( a Greek national wine ) What a sad analogy!
Thousands of protest letters to Greek government officials from around the world have been ignored. A petition of over 80,000 signatures was scorned by a disinterested government. To put it bluntly, it appears that this European Union member state, until now, has given the compassionate world a collective "third finger" salute.
Greece's gross national product depends upon tourism. Please caution family, friends and associates to avoid vacationing and spending hard earned money in any venue with a proven record of brutality and neglect and the issue of neglect in Greece is horrifying. Turn your compassion and horror into an active, powerful force and a profound influence for change.
Apathy Towards Strays
The Athens News
The recent poisonings of dogs in Perama (allegedly authorized by the municipality) are a moral and social outrage. As the 2004 Athens Olympic Games loom ahead, the reports of widespread animal abuse and poisonings in Greece circulate.
The ensuing global concern will gather momentum - via the Internet and international media - and in consequence will wreak havoc on the expectations and projected financial outcome of the Games.
Yet this tragedy could so easily be avoided if the Greek government were truly willing to implement nationwide humane reform. Instead, however, Greek officials disdainfully salute the world with their collective middle finger.
To date, the government's response to nationwide incidents of cruelty towards animals appears to be a perpetual state of inertia and bureaucratic indecision. Legal humane proposals sit idle before parliament while the defenceless animals are taking the proverbial bullet for inhumanity.
Tens of thousands of innocent, unprotected, abandoned animals are suffering and dying agonizing deaths by poisoning, hanging and shooting, as well as by starvation and neglect.
While billions of dollars are being spent on preparation for the Olympic Games infrastructure, airport, hotels, a new rail system, hotels and security, not a cent has been spent to alleviate the suffering of sentient beings.
Marijo Anne Gillis/WAG NY
ATHENS NEWS , 30/05/2003, page: A12
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THE CRUCIFIXION Revisited
Greece is a heady mix of nationalistic sensitivity, joy, drama, ego, pride, myth, superstition and nationalistic convention. The country is a colorful and tantalizing feast for the senses and most decidedly a popular tourist destination.
But this "second home of mine" remains a mystery to me. There are tens of thousands of companion and farmed animals suffering from horrible neglect and agonizing brutality in this "Cradle of Civilization"; throughout the mainland and the idyllic Greek islands. For a country imbued with such a lustrous heritage, accompanied by convivial hospitality and in my estimation, unparalleled beauty; this paradox is mind boggling.
Most Greeks do not believe in sterilization, believing that all animals deserve a "sex life" and subsequently thousands of these homeless victims roam the streets and back alleyways desperate for food and the almost never attained kind, human companionship. The Greeks do not believe in euthanasia in general, but barbaric methods of killing (shooting, hanging, poisoning, burning) are employed on a daily basis.
Please, can someone unravel this mystery? Why the moral ambiguity in a nation awash in churches and people making the Christian "sign of the cross" a hundred times a day?
I plead for a powerful, compassionate and intelligent Greek politician or influential citizen to sound the alarm and awaken a nationwide, modern day revival of compassion and clemency for the animals of Greece?
Until this "Neanderthal" posturing towards animals evolves, please, be prudent and compassionate when choosing a vacation venue. Please avoid traveling and spending your hard earned money in any country that exhibits a blatant disrespect for animals!
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HE EXISTED & DIED
IN HELL
Such A Strenuous Assault Upon Such A Tiny, Vulnerable, Innocent Victim Will Never Be Forgotten!
This dog was barely alive - whimpering and pleading for the help and compassion of a human. For how long, we do not know. Help didn't come. This little Greek pup was seen by thousands of pedestrians, and left to suffer in pain, alone and frightened. After weeks and weeks of suffering in agony, ignored by everyone who passed, this pathetic, tiny, soul was rescued by Mary, a foreign friend of mine living in central Greece; rushed to a vet and mercifully placed into the hands of God.
This dog "existed" in hell and died in hell. This is reprehensible, repugnant and indefensible. This cruelty, apathy and lack of compassion must end; not just in Greece, but in the United States, and the rest of the world. At what point in time did the human animal lose compassion? At what point in the future, will we devolve even further, into specimens too hideous to view?
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Just Another DAILY Poisoning
This little dog was one of many poisoned in a neighborhood. She was left to hemorrhage and die in pain and agony on the streets of Athens. She had been vaccinated, microchipped and was returned to what was described as a "safe haven" neighborhood.
In a matter of days she was to be transported to a loving home in Europe to finally live in peace. She did find peace; but not the peace we all expected for this little pup. Her peace was permanent. As soon as I received the news and these horrifying photos, I emailed the Greek authorities. My email to the Vice Mayor of Athens was terse and to the point. I am so tired of playing diplomatic word games and avoiding toes!
TO: Maria Paravantes for Vice Mayor Tonia Kanellopoulou:
Hi Maraki, I hope you are well. I have been traveling extensively and thankfully have been off line for over a month. The following is only one of hundreds of such poisoning issues that I was informed about about upon my return to New York.
Please Maraki, look at the heart wrenching photos of this poisoned pup and give them to Tonia. This gentle little dog was to be re homed in a matter of a few days to a safe, forever home with a loving family in Germany - finally free from the killing streets of Greece.
As evidenced by the photographs, she hemorrhaged and suffered terribly before succumbing. The death of this poor little soul is a crime but her relief from pain a blessing. What specimens of inhumanity perform such heinous acts? And these agonizing deaths from poison happen in every corner of Greece, each and every day.
Is this suffering what Ms. Ioanna Garagouni and her partners, Tetrapodologein and Popi Baka want to perpetuate in Greece? Their hysterical allegations of "dog trafficking" for commercial gain are ludicrous and this misguided, misinformed, pathetic crew of people including those "paid professionals" with personal agendas and Napoleaonic complexes, are destroying animal welfare in Greece. Their activities must be curtailed before the movement to elevate the status of animals in Greece and save their lives is permanently destroyed.
This entire Greek animal scenario is becoming reminiscent of what hell must be like. This perpetual striving to mimic Animal Auschwitz makes me ill.
Wake up and smell the coffee guys, before it is too late. The horror stories are spreading; tourists will begin to boycott the airspace over Greece, not just the country.
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"Our task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of compassion to
embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty"
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Physicist, Author, Nobel Laureate in Physics 1921
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TO MY FRIENDS IN GREECE: Look into his eyes; he is resigned to his destiny. Unite for him; this little one without a voice without a future; unite for his memory; for he passed shortly after being found; unite without fear for all the other innocent victims of man, who passed before him and for those who will continue to be disrespected, neglected, tortured and killed.
The blatant abuse of animals, domestic, farmed and captive has escalated around the world and the neglect is rampant. There is an innate cruelty against animals in Greece and I have no idea why. There is a distinct and irrefutable link between animal abuse and human violence and there is a great deal of scientific study published on this subject. It would seem obvious that the Greek government and her citizens would look upon their issues with great concern.
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I lived in Greece, while married for 14 years and how I survived the experiences and the visions of animal misery remains a mystery. Perhaps the tenacity and perseverance of youth sustained me until those visions of cruelty and neglect became too difficult to bear. The brutal cruelty and blatant neglect that I witnessed on a daily basis during those years was horrifying. My heart shattered and pieces are missing. I remember the expressions and the eyes of every animal that died in my arms. Their tortured images haunt me to this day. I vowed when I left Greece, that their short, tragic lives and their suffering would not be in vain.
We made four trips to Greece in the year leading up to the Olympic games. We had meetings with Government Ministers, city officials, the Athens Olympic Organizing Committee and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We also participated in several TV exposes and radio broadcasts. The "sights/sites" we saw as we traveled across the mainland and the islands were devastating. Yet, the devastation we witnessed made our resolve to free these animals from their tortured existence much stronger.
Companion animals, especially, closely resemble the traditional beliefs and visions that many of us have of a "loving and forgiving" Creator. Their spiritual evolution far surpasses man's and their vulnerability, purity and innocence is certainly unsurpassed. Their basic instincts are to love and forgive - without reservation, hesitation or judgment. The cross they bear is far too heavy a burden and their journey uphill. Let us extend ourselves in support.
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