| special
animal rescue report
Pride,
Poison and Prejudice around the Parthenon.
How Greece created the Olympic dream at
the cost of thousands of homeless animals.
|
In
Brief...
Animal rescue groups in Greece are falsely accused of trafficking
stray dogs and cats out of the country to make profit from fur and
vivisection. An incident at a Greek airport in March 2004 escalated
into a nationwide scandal, based on a complete mistruth. Greek rescue
organisations said the misleading TV and newspaper reports jeopardized
the lives of thousands of stray dogs and cats in the run-up to and
after the Olympics.
2005...
Garagouni is at it again - In February 2005 Ioanna Garagouni (also
spelt Karagkouni) interfered once more with the transportation of
stray dogs on route to new adopters in Germany - See
full story
Greek media
spread more myths - West Europeans apparently eat dogs. Full story
below.
|
Part
One...
John O'Donnell
examines the continual conflict surrounding animal welfare mismanagement
inside Greece, and reports on false accusations at a Greek airport
that triggered an outbreak of slanderous journalism across the country.
This three part feature also looks at global media coverage of countries
cited as being cruel to animals, from both domestic and international
viewpoints … How did such stories affect the mindset of a proud Greek
public during the run-up to the Olympic Games in August 2004?
Have you heard
the one about the German, Scottish, Belgian and Greek woman at an Athens
Airport?
This is no politically incorrect Euro-joke but the scene-setter for
a bizarre chain of events, involving stray animals and an overdose of
Greek jingoism.
The story begins
at Athens airport on March 11th 2004 .
An elderly woman called Ioanna Garagouni (also spelt Karagkouni) of The
Coalition of Animal Welfare Groups Greece, accompanied by her lawyer and
Alpha Greek TV news cameras, appeared at Athens airport and approached
a Greek girl and two foreign helpers flying out rescued animals. On camera,
Garagouni allegedly accused the innocent rescue worker and her colleagues
of trafficking animals for fur and vivisection. Commotion ensued, and
the police were called in to try and restore order.
Subsequently, the rescued puppies and cats where stopped from being flown
to adopting families in north-west Europe.
By that evening Alpha
TV were broadcasting the incident on the main news. The news report was
titled "Cruelty Prevented" and turned out to be entirely biased towards
Garagouni's allegations, claiming that the animals were being flown out
to be killed for fur or experimentation (rather than the truth, which
was to loving homes in Holland, Belgium, Germany and the UK). The report
also failed to point out that Garagouni's grotesque accusations could
not be substantiated by any evidence whatsoever.
In fact, the truth, which the public never got to find out, was that the
innocent girl and the other rescuers left the airport with no charge.
But the damage was now done and the knock-on affect was to become detrimental
to the future of thousands of stray animals still on the streets - and
for years to come.
Within days, the false story had been picked up by the national newspapers
and padded out with more sensationalism and rumour as it spread. A duped
Greek public were so incensed by this apparent "truth" that the incident
continued to escalate into a hyperbole of nationalistic finger-pointing.
This was "proof" that apparently gave some Greeks credence to believe
that foreigners, and not themselves, were the motivators of animal cruelty
linked to their country.
Myth
and Motivation
The airport incident
had been so badly reported and so biased towards Garagouni's claims
that the country now seemed to be revelling in a completely false yarn.
In fact, on that day at the airport Garagouni also tried to convince airport
customs that the rescuers didn't have the right animal travel documents.
It turns out they did, since the documents in dispute weren't even due
to come into effect until July of that year, and are part of the EU's
new animal passport rules. This was backed up by a fax from the Greek
Ministry of Agriculture sent to the airport during the incident. It was
a copy of the European regulation which proved that Garagouni's claims
of new rules weren't yet applicable and confirmed that the animals' travel
documents were sufficient. The new rules would indeed make it next to
impossible for Greek strays to be flown to new homes abroad without great
expense through a complicated validation procedure.
It turned out that the patriotic Garagouni is well known for her attacks
against the kinds of groups her "coalition" is apparently designed to
support, but at the same time has gained some influence over Greek authorities
on animal matters. Those groups she has accused had researched the apparent
"coalition" status of her organisation and it seemed that such a title
appeared to be misleading - "Coalition" implies that she represents a
large number of groups around the country, but the truth seemed to be
that this self-appointed attorney on animal welfare represented only a
simple group. The prime targets for her assaults appeared to be freestyle
animal rescue-and-adopt groups and Good Samaritan type helpers who fly
out dogs and cats to new homes in foreign countries. And with this in
mind, Garagouni continued her attack on the innocent rescue groups with
a press release issued by her "coalition".
Seemingly determined to impress both public and the media of her authority
in matters of animal rescue and their eventual destination, Garagouni
questioned why these rescue groups don't "accept the strict rules foreseen
by the law …" She went on to state, "These countries (Holland, Belgium,
UK etc.) are very far away, in order to watch the survival of animals,
when this is difficult even in Greece. They (the rescue organisations)
show some photo albums with some families with dogs, and they claim they
are fine. But where are the thousands that travel abroad ending up?"
In other words, Mrs Garagouni was questioning the authenticity of photo
documentation provided by the accused rescue groups.
With an air of cynicism, Garagouni preceded her questioning with "And
I wonder …" And what she also appeared to be wondering was that since
dogs are plentiful in northwest Europe why do these foreigners need Greek
dogs if not to turn them into fur products or for experimentation?
In a press interview, she was asked whether she believed that Greek strays
are being sent abroad for vivisection. She retorted, "What other explanation
is there …?" Garagouni was not able to cite any source to prove her
"beliefs".
But it seems some Greeks took patriotic refuge amongst her words, and
besides the country's media there were now even Greek websites proudly
supportive of the ludicrous claims that pictures of northwest Europeans
posing with their rescued dogs on German and Dutch couches were simply
fakes. They claimed that the photos were staged by the "rescuers" to try
and prove their innocence. Fake Iraqi prisoner picture publishers or the
staged moon landings brigade had new competition, because believe it or
not, these conspiracy theorists appeared to be analysing the doggy pictures
to try and prove that the furniture and people in the photos were Greek
and not Dutch or British etc… The mind boggles at the thought of dastardly
Greek animal traffickers hiding boxes of props in their sheds - blonde
wigs, bowler hats, clogs, lederhosen and an assortment of Ikea furnishings.
 |
 |
|
Here's
Andreas, now called Theo. He was hit by a car in Keratsini Greece,
The rescuers had to have him operated on twice. He was also treated
for venereal disease and infected ears. He stayed in fostering for
6 months (picture on left). This dog cost the rescuers around 1.300
euros to restore to health and the picture on the right is Theo
with his new owner in Holland.
Bizarrely, it's pictures like these that Garagouni's followers think
are fakes, apparently to cover-up the dogs "true" destiny
as a fur coat or for vivisection.
Click
here for more pictures - caution very upsetting images
|
Greek
TV and news spread more myths - West Europeans apparently eat dogs.
The Greek media
really seemed to have it in for the West Europeans and continued to
distort truths in the most extraordinary ways. In June 2004, directors
of a meat wholesaler in Belgium were arrested after it was discovered
that meat meant for tinned dog food was ending up in sausages for human
consumption (hot dogs in fact).
The Greek media and Greek extremist websites picked up on this proclaiming
that the meat actually from dogs was being put into sausages.
This latest
Greek myth appeared to have started when Orange mobile phones website
Ananova, published the potentially misleading story. Their headline originally
said "Dog meat used in hot dogs" instead of "Dog
food used in hot dogs" That one little word made all the difference
to the Greek media who hadn't bothered to read the rest of the news item,
a report which made facts clearer towards the end.
LGVN (this site) contacted Orange pointing out their misleading wording
and the news item was corrected. But corrections are all too late and
irrelevant as far as the Greek media is concerned; TV and newspapers continue
to spread stories across the country suggesting, in effect, that the "foreigners"
of West Europe eat dog!
For a deceived Greek public, that latest yarn only added fuel to their
belief that strays are sent abroad for fur and experiments ... because
now apparently, the Brits, Belgians, and Dutch etc, eat them as well!
Double
Indemnity
But this isn't just
a story about discrimination and a country's animal control methods.
It also unfolds through the eyes of the more compassionate side of Greece
and the people themselves, many who are strongly opposed to the injustices
that stem from its own authorities - and some of its people - regarding
unwanted animals.
As in any country, there is no doubt that Greece may harbour a tiny
minority of cruel animal traffickers but the passion for rescuing Greek
dogs and cats for homing with caring owners has never been so popular.
This is where the extraordinary logic of Ms Garagouni's press release
requires a further look. She points out that it's illegal to perform
euthanasia in Greece, so why should animals need to be sent out of the
country to be saved, she argues. Right she may be - technically - but
the law didn't stop someone from poisoning thousands of strays around
Athens in the run-up to the Olympics. And those few who may have survived
still suffer neglect and starvation on the streets, so rescue and homing
in other countries is clearly a welcome option for these dejected animals.
Greek authorities deny having anything to do with the systematic slaughtering
of street animals, and Garagouni somehow seems dismissive or else in
denial of these atrocities in her own country.
However, the cat was out of the bag so to speak, and both caring Greeks
and foreigners worked round the clock to save the remaining animals.
But as several animal welfare workers in Athens tried to get the required
papers for travel, along with veterinarian confirmation, they were being
refused on all fronts. This seemed to tie in with Garagouni's move to
get authorities to act and stop any further transportation of rescued
stray animals to other countries.
A thoroughly confused Greek Ministry of Agriculture now seemed to believe
all they had read in the press. Regardless of the fax they sent to Athens
airport on that day in March, they seemed to change their tune and subsequently
sent out a circular to all Greek airports telling them to stop anyone
attempting to fly out strays to new homes abroad. In effect, the ministry
were now exercising the new EU rules in advance of the July start date,
but it seems, adding rules of their own. This was no doubt to appease
Garagouni's protests and calm down a restless Greek public. Animal rescuers
found that the situation had become impossible, since they were unable
to fly out any of their animals. They said that the airline authorities
were in total confusion about the validity of clearance papers and subsequently
refused passage to any rescued animal.
Meanwhile, those who continued to follow Garagouni's bandwagon firmly
believed - and still do believe - that hundreds of fur traffickers disguised
as animal rescuers are shipping thousands of animals out of Greece for
evil doings in foreign places.
Innocent animal rescuers are also being accused of making untold fortunes
from selling strays to foreign countries for around 35 Euros. The accused
groups point out that besides the fact that they don't make any money
from their charity work, it actually costs hundreds of Euros to provide
the animal's veterinary treatment along with their flight arrangements.
You would think this detail along with a mountain of evidence would
help put an end to any further myths claiming that these innocent girls
are selling strays for fur and experiments to nasty foreign black-market
criminals. But on the contrary; pre-Olympic Greece seemed to have become
a country immersed in a firm patriotic belief of false press reports.
There seemed no end to its media basking in self-appeasing propaganda.
Arguments from the Garagouni school of thought even claim that Britain
has just as bad a stray animal problem as Greece. If Britain says this
is untrue because most pets in the UK are spayed and neutered to avoid
overpopulation, the Greeks respond by saying that stray animals are
hardly seen on the UK streets because the British destroy them all.
Truth
or Dare
Ignoring the fact
that those people whom Garagouni accused at Athens Airport that day
could completely prove their innocence, it looks like she is going to
stand firm by her beliefs ad infinitum. Since a profound apology from
the lady is never likely to happen, the accused were preparing to take
Garagouni, plus the TV and newspapers to court.
The accused are
still numbed with disbelief since the airport incident that day in March
2004. They also wished to remain as anonymous as possible but had already
received threatening phonecalls from people clearly brainwashed by the
false reports. But the accused are not alone in their fight to prove
their innocence to the Greek public. Many welfare groups and colleagues
inside and outside Greece are still determined to set the record straight.
Across Europe thousands of owners of Greek strays continue to rally
support. They are clearly very real people with very real photos, providing
whatever evidence they can to prove that Garagouni and much of the Greek
media have got it completely wrong. However, by late Feburary 2005 Garagouni
accompanied by Alpha TV were at it again. For more see the The
Piraeus Incident
Angels
to the Strays
And here's the final
proof that this article can offer to an otherwise misled Greek public.
On a sunny afternoon
in September 2003, I attended a Greek strays reunion in Apeldoorn, Holland.
I had been told about this reunion and so travelled over from the UK
to see for myself.
What I saw was an amazing spectacle of 102 dogs, along with their new
owners, gathered on the sandy beach of a lake, all fit, healthy and
happy. The dogs had been reunited for a few hours with the Greek girls
who had rescued them from certain death on the streets of Athens and
beyond.
 |
Left: Playtime
on the beach at Apeldoorn - Just a handful of the 102 dogs that attended
the Greek Strays Reunion. |
These wonderful
girls have devoted their lives to saving and finding homes for the unwanted
dogs of Greece. They work independently through various Greek and foreign
animal rescue organisations and fly the animals to families in Holland,
Belgium Germany and UK etc, who clearly provide the animals heaps of
love and affection.
After the reunion, I ended up travelling to Antwerp with the very same
girl who, a few months later, was going to be falsely accused at Athens
airport by Garagouni and her entourage. During the four hour car journey,
the girl, Iris and another Greek fellow rescuer described to me in detail
the situation in Greece, and the never ending obstacles they have to
overcome at the airports. To be able to fly the animals out of the country
and to their new homes it seems they have to face a completely arbitrary
process of assessment and questioning. It seems to change from day to
day, has no rationale and generally depends on the mood of an airline
official as to whether an animal is allowed on a flight.
During that car journey, it was crystal clear to me that these girls
were totally immersed in their relentless battle to help those animals
- they simply oozed natural empathy towards them. I remember one of
the girls remarking on how different it was to be driving along Dutch
roads where you hardly ever saw a dead cat or dog on the curb - a common
sight in Greece. But even so, the eyes of Iris and her fellow rescuer
were nervously fixed on every movement each side of the motorway - a
blowing scrap of paper or a dancing leaf could easily be an animal about
to run into traffic.
Being both journalist
and ultimate witness, perhaps able to set the record straight in this
story, I can also add one final piece of evidence in their defence.
Two days after the Apeldoorn reunion I visited SOS Strays in Belgium.
They are one of the organisations where rescued Greek animals are flown
to by the girls before they are passed on to carefully selected new
owners.
While I was there, a Belgian couple arrived to collect their young furry
adoptee. It was then I saw the most fulfilling moment in the animal's
long journey to happiness when he was handed over to his new loving
family. It was one of the very same dogs that the Greek girls - the
angels to the strays - had just flown over.
Licks, wagging tails and smiles all round.
Before
you flip to
Part
2 of this article, I leave you with a press release from
the accused parties.
"Following
the recent publications in the Greek press and TV, concerning the massive
exports abroad of companion animals for illegal reasons and contrary
to the law for animal protection, we express anger against the ungrounded
accusations from a group calling themselves "The Coalition of Animal
Welfare Groups of Greece". Their unsubstantiated accusations intentionally
generates to the public opinion a false belief, that other Greek animal
welfare groups send animals to Europe and elsewhere to be used for fur,
collagen or experimentation.
If these accusations
contained even grains of truth, then the accusers have the obligation
to present specific data in order to prove their claims, and so set
the record straight.
Instead, their
general and vague accusations, decorated with nationalistic and scornful
crescendos against the countries of Europe, directly offend the generous
animal loving work of all the animal welfare groups and persons working
with European organizations. Not to mention the main "victims" being
the animals themselves, which roam unwanted in the Greek streets, simply
because some refuse to accept that animal care has no borders and that
animal protection is not the monopoly of self-called "district attorneys"
of the animal loving world.
We strongly resist
these attacks and refuse to limit our role to being "dog-catchers" in
order to be included in the list of "healthy" animal welfare groups.
We will continue to care for the animals that are hungry, that get poisoned
and that are abandoned.
We will no longer
tolerate anymore "sensationalism" through the press which wrongly accuses
us and therefore abuses the fundamental constitutional rights of our
members. Our members make tireless efforts to educate our society about
animal welfare. We take care of animals for years and spend substantial
amounts of our own money to home them - rushing to airports - putting
up with all manner of obstacles in efforts to home them with loving
families.
Finally, in order
to avoid any misunderstanding, it is our duty to clarify that we have
no relation whatsoever with the "Coalition of Animal Welfare Groups
of Greece". We were never members of that Coalition; consequently we
are not represented by it through its spokespeople in any manner."
This press release
is endorsed by:
The
Greek Animal Welfare Fund (GAWF).
Welfare
for Animals Global (WAG)
Pan-Cretan Group
for the Protection of Animals "Noah's Ark".
Cretan Animal Welfare
Group.
Greek
Animal Rescue (GAR)
Protection of stray animals of Pylaea, Thessaloniki.
Small Noa's Arck.
Scan Skopelos.
Friends of Animals of Rethymnon.
Achaian Group for the Care of animals.
Animals Care.
Animal welfare group of St. Nicholas, Crete.
Friends of Animals, St. Theodores, Korinth.
Together We Can.
K.A.Z
Animal Peace, Chalkidiki.
Animal welfare Mountaineering Ecological Association of Chalkidiki ARGOS,
Katerini.
THE ARK of Corfu.
Care Corfu Animal Rescue
Enterprise.
Animal concerning Team.
The Eagle.
Lefkas Animal Welfare Society" (LAWS).
Kefalonia Animal
Trust (KATs).
Association of Animal Lovers of Kifissia, for Animal Rights and Protection.
Animal Care of Samos.
Stray Animal Shelter of Markopoulo.
Animal Respect of
Aegina.
Animal welfare Association of Helioupolis.
Story
continued >
Next
... Click here for Part 2 - Analysis - Pre-Olympic Jitters >
Pride, Poison and Prejudice around the Parthenon MENU
you
are here>
Part
1 - Main Story
Part
2 - Analysis - Pre-Olympic Jitters
Part
3 - Backgrounds of Greece and other countries cited as cruel to animals
Photo
Page - caution contains upsetting images
This
article was last updated in: March 2005
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