Published in Voima 6/2014
Photo: Toto whose flight was cancelled
Crete is a
paradise at the first sight. Snow covered mountains, turquoise-shaded sea.
There are beaches and olive groves. Lime trees and rock roses are in bloom
already in April.
In Iraklion I
meet a man called Angelos. He tells me that often Greek treat dogs like toys.
“They get a puppy because it is so sweet. But in couple of months they notice
there is too much trouble in taking care of it and just abandon it on the
street”.
Dogs are not neutered and because they go free, there
are born more puppies than there are homes for them. Also adult dogs are
abandoned, hanged or poisoned. The mass-poisoning are called “cleaning”. They
usually take place before or after the tourist-season.
Animal
protectors’ Sisyphean labor is to try and save as many dogs as possible, to
bring those to dog shelters and find a new home abroad for them. I visited two
Cretan shelters, both run by Englishmen.
Linda Lucas’s shelter is located in Kaina near
Vamos. One can see the White Mountains in there. According to Linda there are
approx. 250 dogs in the shelter. Linda receives continually new
inmates.
On the way to the shelter we stop and pick
up a starving boxer-mix who trembles from fatigue.
The next day they call from a school at Vamos telling there is five
abandoned one-month old puppies. Linda agrees to fetch them too.
After a couple of days one adult dog and several
puppies has been left outside the shelter.
Due the lack of all conveniences
except the agricultural water on water pipes, it is really hard to get
voluntary workers.
On this occasion Linda has time to feed the dogs not until at night. She
pushes heavy cart on the stony pavements in torch-light.
Linda lives in a caravan with several dogs. Two dog-invalids are sitting
on the caravan floor leaning back against each other. They are looking at me
ever so kindly.
A pitbull-mix was shot with both
pistol and a shotgun. The vet operated a bull from his spine. The puppy has got
good changes to be cured; he is already slightly moving his hind legs.
The elder small dog was hit by a car. He had been lying on the road-side
for days before Linda rescued him. He will not be able to walk again but Linda
is hoping to get a wheel-chair sponsored for him.
“It is not hard to get donations. People are willing to help and adopt
handicapped dogs. The problem is that I do not have time to update the
information about dogs in internet”, Linda says.
There are quarantine cages for
puppies in Linda’s unfinished house. The
floors of cages are covered with secretions. Linda has not got time to clean
the cages frequently.
The absorbent pads are too expensive.
Puppies have to lie on the cardboard sheets which are soaked in urine. They
must be shivering in coldness of the nights. The water bowls are filled with
excrement.
They know the situation in the
association which is contributing the shelter. However, Linda is however too
stressed out to take accept orders or even guidance from them.
”Linda has a big heart and she cannot deny or leave alone
all the puppies and ill dogs that are thrown outside (or even inside) her
shelter. And Linda takes them all.”
Bobolaki continues
that the Municipalities, which are responsible according to the law, for the
welfare of the stray animals in their majorities are not only doing nothing but
hinder some time the effort of the Animal Welfare Associations and volunteers.
Foreign vets have offered to visit
and sterilize dogs and cats for free. Cretan
vets are however opposing this because they are afraid to loose clients.
Besides these two dog shelters there
are several other shelters in Crete. Two of them are kept by Cretans. The
people I meet claim dogs are starving in there.
On Greece Exposed
–webpage there is a sad piece of news concerning one municipal shelter. In
Volos which is situated in mainland dogs were left for 11 days
without water or food. One of the dogs had died and the others had been gnawing
the body. This happened after the the expiry of the contract between the municipal
and KY.N.SE.P. ‘Argo’.
Angel Hope near Agia
Pelagia is very different to Linda’s shelter. The English Dawn Cork and Steve
Ockwell live in a modern house of which the rent is paid by sponsors.
Angel Hope is situated
on a mountain slope and there is a breath taking view to a village by the sea.
However, the dogs are not interested of the view. They only long to socialize
with people.
I take a corgi
sized Toto for a walk. He had already been reserved in Finland but the couple
who booked him could not afford his travel after all.
A good-mannered
hunting dog Zack has got a severe cataract. He is not totally blind as tiny
Champ is. Champ was found as six weeks old with a deep wound in his head and a
string round his neck.
This resulted
in a brain-damage and that is why Champ does not see a thing with his beautiful
eyes. Champ is allowed to live in a house with the couples own dogs as is Zack
also.
There is about
fifty dogs in the shelter but nearly sixty is about to be transferred from
Chania shelter which is going to be shut down. I am not allowed to see that
shelter which is taken care by Steve’s ex-wife Samantha. However, Dawn tells
that the shelter is “terrible”.
Steve has got
two weeks to build the fences for the new dogs. It seems rather an impossible
task because the only car in the shelter has been broken and there are also
financial difficulties.
“The donators
think we can build the needed fences in 5000 euros. They do not understand that
it is impossible but keep continually asking when the fences will be ready”,
Steve huffs.
“In the animal welfare world there are three types of people”, says Linda,
“Those that want to make money from it, those that like to sit behind a
computer playing the "animal welfare" people and those that really do
the dirty work like me.”
“People who are on their
feet from 7am to the middle of the night. With injured dogs in the car on the
drip, shit all over my hands and feet and suffering from exhaustion.”
For how long can nearly 60-years old, petit Linda go on? And what will happen to the dogs when she
cannot go on anymore?
Elisa Kissa-Öberg
What I wrote about the dog shelters kept by Cretan was just hearsay.
After printing the article I learned that at least in Coustoula Stoupi’s
shelter the dogs are treated well.
