Athens Stray Dogs Rounded Up Ahead of Olympics

ATHENS, Greece, August 4, 2004 (ENS) - With the Olympic Games due to start on August 13, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is urgently calling on Greece to implement a comprehensive plan to deal with Athens' stray dog population - one of the largest in Europe.

The Society says it is "deeply concerned that Athens will be keen to present a good image to the world and look for a quick fix for its 9,000-12,000 strays."

One of Athens' thousands of stray dogs (Photo credit unknown)

Officially, the Greek authorities say that there will be no poisoning of strays, but the RSPCA and other animal welfare groups worry that poisonings will occur unofficially.

At the press briefing on Tuesday, Michael Zacharatos, communications manager for the Athens Olympic Committee (AOC) tried to put such concerns to rest.

Answering a question by President of the Australian Olympic Committee John Coates who said that British athletes are concerned about the stray dogs in the Olympic Village where the athletes will live during the Games, Zacharatos said, "We were informed about that yesterday and we are working closely with all the neighboring municipalities and animal protection organizations."

"These organizations will neuter and treat them, and confine them in care units," Zachartos said. "After the Olympic Games, the stray dogs will be returned to where they were found."

The newly constructed Olympic Village the athletes will inhabit during the Games. (Photo courtesy Athens 2004 Olympic Games)

Games organizers said animal welfare groups and local dogcatchers were rounding up the animals and would clear them out by tonight.

"They will be collecting all strays in the area close to the village in the next two days," said Zacharatos.

In June 2003 an initiative to deal with the Athens strays was announced.

Carried out in cooperation with the Greek Ministry of Agriculture, municipal authorities, the Panhellenic Federation of Veterinarians, and the Federation of Greek Animal Protection Societies representing the 38 cooperating Greek animal protection societies, the initiative rejects euthanasia as a solution for stray animals.

The first stage is the collection of stray animals from the wider area of Athens, with the cooperation of the municipalities and the SPCAs.

The second phase consists of vaccination and neutering, in cooperation with the municipalities and the veterinarians.

Although there are only only one or two shelters in Athens that can take dogs and they are already overcrowded, the Church of Greece has granted a small area of land in Attica to be used during this temporary sheltering phase.

Finally, the third stage will reintroduce healthy, vaccinated and neutered animals back to the environments from which they were collected.

Athens 2004 President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki (Photo courtesy International Olympic Committee)

While animal welfare organizations generally support a spay/neuter and release program for the strays, the RSPCA fears that Athens' efforts are too little, too late.

Head of RSPCA International David Bowles said, "We believe that efforts to resolve the stray dog problem are urgently required and will be needed long after the Olympic Games have finished. A good start would be to allow the rehoming of dogs abroad and finance humane, well run shelters as soon as possible."