A new case of dog abuse is reported by the Movement of Ecologists - Citizens' Cooperation.
A statement said: "According to a complaint to the Movement of Ecologists-Citizens' Cooperation, a sad story has been unfolding since last Saturday regarding the tragic end of three small dogs and the abuse of others. From the information we have, there are a number of errors from all the services involved that are responsible for enforcing the welfare law.
On Saturday, a conscientious citizen complained to the Moni police station that there was a dead dog in cages in the Chapel. There were other dogs in the cages but in poor conditions.
The Monastery Police Station referred the citizen to the veterinary services and the animal police, while they knew that the veterinary services do not work on weekends and the animal police is only staffed until 19:30.
After contacting the animal police on Sunday, they told the citizen that they would examine the incident on Monday when the veterinary services would be open to check the incident together. The inspection was finally carried out on Monday and the "owner" was informed to improve the living conditions of the animals. In our opinion, however, since there was a dead animal in the cage at least since Friday, the other animals had to be removed and taken to a veterinarian until the case is investigated by the competent authorities to avoid more unpleasant situations. Late at night the volunteers who went to see if anything the owner promised happened, saw tragic images and the other 2 little dogs died from the cold because they were just left there to die.
On Tuesday the competent authorities would go for a re-inspection but it was already too late.
In the attempt of a rescuer to save the other dogs that were in the specific area which were in immediate danger of finding the same tragic end, since they had no protection from the weather conditions that prevailed in those days (rain, strong winds, cold, etc. .) and having no response from the competent authorities, managed to get the other dogs to a safe place. At her own expense the dogs immediately went to a veterinarian who diagnosed that one dog had a high fever, was positive for hemorrhoids and leishmaniasis and the other was malnourished. The rescuer tried to inform the veterinary clinic that the dogs were in her possession without any response. The dog owner also handed over a dog that was tied to the tree in a shelter because he was afraid of being fined as this is prohibited under the animal welfare law.
Based on the information we have, it appears that the competent authorities have failed to ensure the health and well-being of the animals in this case. They also come to complain to the volunteer that she stole the 2 dogs, which is completely unacceptable because thanks to her the other two dogs were saved because otherwise we would have had 5 dogs dead and not 3. The tragedy of the case is that, despite the documented abuse of dogs , the police demand from the rescuer to return the dogs to the owner. Even today, however, the dogs remain with the rescuer because the owner does not know where to get them.
The head of the Animal Welfare Group of the Movement, Ms. Anthi Mouzouri, stated that "In our opinion, the veterinary services should immediately confiscate all the animals owned by this person, since the veterinarian's diagnosis indicates obvious abuse. In addition, the case must be brought to justice for causing death to animals and animal cruelty and impose severe penalties as provided by the welfare law. We also demand that the omissions, errors and oligarchy be investigated by the law enforcement authorities and where there are responsibilities to be attributed. We clearly state that the Movement will stand by the rescuer because in this case the only thing it did was to save the lives of the other two dogs, something that the competent services should have done. "This case is about souls, not objects."