Charity Vets Have Been Threatened and are Afraid to Work on Kos Island…

Added by Julie Finlay on 13/11/2010.
Saved under Animals, Featured, Local News - Kos, Media, Photo Gallery
Tags: animals, cats, could, G. Kiritsis, good, greece, Greek, Island, Kardamena, Kos, kos elections 2010, land, money, people

As locals and tourist are aware there is a huge problem with stray animals in Greece, Kos being only one location where the situation concerning the abuse and murder of animals is apparent. Although the education system is improving there are still many people out there who are committing crimes against animals and mistreating and killing them without reason.

There are Greek laws (Law 3170/2003) as well as European laws that protect animals on all levels and in Greece it seems that these laws are simply being ignored. You only have to read the stories of poisoning and cruelty in the newspapers to understand this.

An example of this is when 16 cats which habited a graveyard and were fed by local residents were poisoned for no reason in Kardamena, Kos only weeks ago. These cats were in very good physical conditions and had all been castrated therefore causing no problems to anyone. These cats were found dead after going through the worst possible death through being poisoned with an industrial poison(see pictures). No perpetrator has been found therefore this is another example of individuals evading the law.

Although this is not the only problem that is faced concerning animal welfare! Maria Winterleitner is the president of the charity www.tierhilfe-kos.at and she has been working on Kos for at least 3 years with a team of vets from Germany, their aim being to help control the problem of the strays and to assist in anyway possible to the protection of animals. In 2009 alone her team helped over 800 stray animals on Kos and almost 3000 since they started. (Report at http://www.tierhilfe-kos.at/en/report09.html )

It was also stated in the report

“ The population of Kos really appreciates our commitment and is, of course, very keen on welcoming us again. As soon as it is financially possible, we will be happy to continue our work during the next year.”

“Unfortunately, we also encountered some issues while trying to protect the animals; thus, some of our local helpers were attacked and threatened repeatedly. In addition, there are still problems with the authorities and, as of late, also with some Greek veterinarians because, unlike their Austrian colleagues, they are primarily interested in making money instead of alleviating the suffering of animals.”

Maria was promised space by the vice mayor of Kos Town where they could carry out their castration program but it now appears that the vets on the island have spoken out and since this time the vise mayor has not answered any emails or accepted or returned any calls. As European citizen’s Maria’s team have the right to work in Greece as trained veterinarians but they have been threatened by two well known vets that if the team of vets come to Kos to work with the animals they will be arrested and taken to court.

The reason that has been given to Maria is that the vets here on Kos have stated that Kos does not have a problem with stray animals and therefore there is no need for anyone to come to Kos to carry out a castration program.

Now anyone who lives in Kos and has visited Kos as a tourist can be witness to the fact that there is a huge problem on Kos especially when you are unable to eat in a restaurant or walk through the harbor and archeological sites without seeing numerous cats which are in bad health and hungry.

It is also apparent that the professional people here on the island who should morally support these kinds of charities (especially when it will not be of cost to the professionals or the Municipality) do not do anything and may very well be against the support offered.

There are charities such as Z.O.E.K. (www.cos-island.info) and A.R.K. (animalrescuekos.co.uk) in Kos that are dedicated to the welfare of the animals but who get no support from the Municipalities (although they have always been promised support in pre election periods). For example an animal medical centre for the Island has been promised many times and to this day one does not exist on the island. If an animal is sick or needs treatment the animals have to be taken to local vets whom charge large amounts to the charities for the treatment.

As told to Kos-Explorer “ the vets on Kos do nothing to help the stray animals except charge the tourists lots of money to help the injured animals and to pay for vaccinations and EU passports to enable the animals to be taken off the island”

Now can anyone explain why calls and emails are not answered and threats are made to qualified vets who want to work in the interest of the animals and the island?

It is also sad to see that the charities here on the island who are dedicating their time and money to help the animals of Kos are recieving no respect or help from the municipalities, please see the emails below which were sent to the Mayor of Iraklidon – Mr Billis, Mayor of Kos – Mr Kiritsis, and the Greek Prime Minister – Mr Papandreou and to date there has been no response or action to these emails.

From: email removed for privacy
To: email removed for privacy
Subject: Kardamena cats
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 06:40:44 +0300

Dear Sirs,
It is with great sadness and anger that we have seen and heard what went on in Kardamena on Thursday/Friday.

Kivotos (Animal rescue Kos) received a phone call on Thursday evening, from a concerned local, saying that one of the cats at the small cemetery had been poisoned. The next day we received a call to say 15 more were dead, a slow painful death for no reason. All of these cats had been sterilized so that the numbers wouldn’t get out of control and be murdered, and were healthy through great expense and hard work by volunteers. We supplied food to the local elderly Greek woman who feeds them regularly.

It has upset lots of people both Greek and other nationalities on the island, and has brought back horrific memories of the previous years incident when 9 dogs were found hung from a tree not far from where this incident took place, and which to date the man responsible has not been punished.

We are not going to sit back idly and allow this blatant flouting of the law to continue. These animals have no voice ,we are their voice and we will use it. There are also laws document 3170/2003 in place to protect them, these are not been implemented.

We, along with Zoek are working tirelessly, to try and help and protect these animals. You should be seriously worried about the number of tourists that we have spoken to this summer on the information stand in Tingaki, where we have sat for 5 hours every night of the season, with no pay I may add trying to get support and financial help so we can help these animals. They will not return here, because of the things they see, dogs on short chains, farm animals with no shade or water in 40 degrees of heat, starving animals, huge numbers of cats, need I go on?

We live on what should be a beautiful island, full with tourists, and therefor a strong economy, instead we have an island covered in rubbish that doesn’t care about its animals, where tourists don’t want to return.

We have vets in E.U. countries wanting to come in and sterilize the stray cats and dogs for free thus controlling the numbers, we have people ready to help, we have local people begging us to sterilise the animals to help control the populations. So what happens, the vets don’t receive working permission (flouting EU laws), the local vets create problems, and the whole thing cannot be done. We want these highly qualified vets here to help us, we haven’t got the money to sterilise thousands of animals with local vets, we have enormous vets bills as it is, treating injured animals etc. We have to work hard to get money, to pay these bills.

This incidentally is your responsibility, not ours , but as decent people we can not stand by and see this level of abuse and animal suffering, and do nothing. Yet we get no help!

We had a meeting with you last year, Mr.Kyritsis before we became a legal organisation, and you said that there was E.U funding available for land, a clinic and a vet to help these animals, but only to a legal organization. We went to considerable time and effort and a lot of money to do just this. Then earlier this year I phoned your office every day for two whole weeks to set up a meeting with you, and to date you haven’t replied to us. This shows us the respect with which you hold us.

There are ways that you could help if you choose too.

We plan to build a sanctuary on the island. It will not become a dumping ground for every animal that no one wants. It will be run on the advice of other long established organizations. We have a non euthanasia policy, there for the numbers need to be controlled. It will have a surgery and hopefully a full time vet. It will have a coffee shop and a pic-nic area so people can relax with their animals. We hope to invite the schools in for education purposes. It will be a tourist attraction, employing local people. We shall run dog training lessons. We are fund-raising now.

We need a piece of land, 30,000sqm to buy very cheaply in order to start. It has to be away from private houses but accessible to the public. It needs to have water and be near electricity, although we plan to get most of our electricity from solar power.

We need help with the infrastructure. We need help to have it all fenced in. Do you have land we can buy? We also will need assurances in writing that there will be no problems with planning permission for the things we need. We would in the future like to have a vets training college there.

Think about it, the land you sell us cheaply will pay for itself many times over, because if we do this right this island could be marketed as an animal loving paradise ,with a zero tolerance to animal abuse, greatly increasing the numbers of tourists.

We do of course have to start implementing the current laws in order for this to succeed.

A good place to start may be with the chipping and registration of the dogs on the island, people could be given a month to have their dogs chipped and after that they will be subject to a fine, which will pay for someone to be employed to check this is been done.

The hunters would be a good place to start, make it a condition of their license that their dogs have to be registered. Hunting dogs are the ones we deal with most often, when they are dumped on the street, when they have finished breeding, or are afraid of the gun. This is easy to stop.

Together we can make this a great place for the animals, the people who live here,and the tourists.Are you intrested in helping? I await your reply.

Yours sincerely,
Susan Mc Grane.
For and on behalf of Kivotos.

From: email removed for privacy
To: email removed for privacy
Subject: FW: Kardamena cats
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:59:39 +0300

Dear Mr.Papandreou,

This is a copy of the recent e-mail I have sent to two of the mayors on Kos. Despite the serious nature of these crimes, I have to date to receive a reply.

As an animal rescue group made up of volunteers, who give their time and money freely to help these street animals, as we cannot stand by and watch this abuse take place. I find this insulting and a total disregard for the work we do which should be done by the Municipality.

We get no Government help, and no support in enforcing the laws of Greece.. .Law 3170/2003.

I would welcome your thoughts on this.

I await your reply.

Yours sincerely
Susan Mc Grane
President
Kivotos(Animal Rescue Kos)

Isn’t it about time something was done!

As told to Julie Finlay – Kos-explorer.com Chief Editor

Speedy231058

it is always so sad to see capable human beings acting with such bad behaviour. Let us hope that the new mayor of Kos – whether the reigning one or his successor – actually does the job properly this time – he is a servant of the people – residents and tourists – he is a spokesperson for this beautiful island. His job is not to sit in an ivory tower looking at all below him reaping the backhanded benefits that may come his way and ignoring the bad behaviour of those who think only of themselves!!

If people are being threatened and victimised for wanting to help then the leaders of Kos must show their worth and deal with the perpetrators. We are an EU country and should now stand side by side with the rest of the EU – not lag behind and show ourselves as weak and ineffectual as we have been doing up to now!!!!
ToBeOrNotToBe..

It’s beyond my understanding and it worries me that there are actually people here in Kos capable of such cruelty…
I have been told by one of the local vets that it is illegal for foreign vets to operate here.The same law applies to them if they would want to operate in Germany.
Also that they are opposing because they are only interested in $$$ is not true,as I know one who saved lots of stray kitties,but independently not with a charity group.
I agree that something must be done,I’m sure the majority of the citizens of Kos love animals and are disgusted by this barbarian sadistic behavior from some psycho’s,who unfortunately we don’t know who they are so they can be punished.
Would a petition be an idea?
- Escha64
  
  May be its right,that they cant operate on their own,but they could do it like a Assistant and one of the local vets is with them.Its always a question of money…
  In Germany its allowed to work and to to open your own business as long you are european and you passed the university with diplom.
  I would say the minority likes animals and if you hear what some people say about cats and dogs, you think you are in the middleage.My neighbour told me her child got chickenpocks from touching a cat.
  The adults grow up to tell their children bad dog,good child.I could write more and more.When they will change when not now? To treat a animal right shows me in one way also to respect the life.
- Maria Winterleitner
  
  The difference between greek vets and German vets is, that in Germany there are many vets takeing care of homeless animals. There are many very well traníned vets who treat strayanimals free of charge. On Kos there are vets who are not well trained. they are not able to take out eyes if animals have insured eyes. they cannot pull teeth or an amputet tails.I had to take animals to Austria which have been operated by vets from Kos. They where so badly operated that we had to reoperate them. So we had to pay twice once for the terrible job they did on Kos and than the job the vets in Austria did. I did ask the Vets on Kos many times for cooperations I offerd them to pay for their work and I also paid at least 30000 Euros for not very good work they did on strays. But they do not want to improve on their abillity to operate.they are not treating any strays ecxept someone pays for it. there are atleast 50000 cats on kos and the vets do not care about it. In Austria and Germany their are many vets who care. This is the difference! Greek People are able to work in Austria and Germany. But we are not able to work on Kos although the vetsafrom Germany are mutch better trained. Greek vets do not want the competition of well trained German vets, because they know they will loose. But the will get the competition. We will fight for the stray animals on kos. We will write about the situation in austrian and german newspapers and also talk about this on the television here in Europe.
  best regards
  Maria
  Maria Winterleitner
  - ToBeOrNotToBe..
    
    Doesn’t make sense what you wrote there Maria..first of all my vet is very well trained and saved my cat’s live.
    You say that the cats were so bad operated you had to pay twice:once here ,once in Austria,right?Well how come that your superwell trained vets are willing to pay themselves to come here and operate for free (because they care so much),but when you pay for the animals to fly over whole way to them in Austria they make you pay?Suddenly they didn’t care??Pls enlighten me..:/
    - Kitty
      
      I have to agree with maria that something needs to be done about the animals in kos the vets here maybe trained but either not well trained or lack experience as three of my cats died after either being mis-diagnosed or given the wrong treatment I will not go into the gruesome details, I have taken stray cats to the vets paid for them to be operated on and been told to put them back on the streets the next day does the wound miraculously heal overnight. Also up to date I have buried yes buried, I refuse to put them in the dustbins like many people do seven cats through poisoning most recent one month ago I praise the dedicated charities who work so tirelessly day and night to help the animals but are overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done, so yes they do need help something has to be done
    - ToBeOrNotToBe
      
      Hmm,still waiting for an explanation,has Maria fled the scene?
AgentK

It is simply atrocious! We keep saying how ‘civilised’ we are, and how western civilization was born here in Greece, boasting about our ancient advances like we had something to do with it….. and yet, the most primitive self serving ideals still prevail here, the collective good is always ‘somebody elses problem to solve’. Get a grip everyone, we look like the worst kind of species in the way we treat animals in this country. The only thing we Greeks have become experts at is complaining and blaming others for our inadequacies. If the bloody Greek vets won’t assist in reducing this problem then name them and shame them. I for one will not support them (current owner of 9 neutered cats who has paid an extortionate amount of money to these overpriced no-do-gooders)
Bring the Charity vets who actually have a conscience in I say, who will help alleviate the suffering of these poor animals.
ToBeOrNotToBe..

I don’t like what happened,but this is caused by a few creeps not by “all Greeks”,also if you want something to get done,do it yourself and stop complaining don’t wait for others to do it.as I said before the vet I know is helping stray cats and has adopted over 30,so don’t tell me the vets here don’t do good.Maybe you don’t know but there have been found dead stray cats,they had been operated but put back on the street without waiting their wounds were healed,so it got infected and they died.They assume this is work from charity vets who come here on their holiday but can’t stay long enough or whatever the reason to wait till the cats they operated are fit enough to release back in the street.I’ve been told that some lady in Rhodes got arrested for that.The vets here want to avoid this from happening again,maybe that’s why they oppose,maybe a meeting is needed between the vets and charity groups here to talk things out.
@ Escha64 when should the come and assist?The vets here are very busy already,and no even with a diploma you can’t go on vacation in Germany and start operating when it suits you!!
ToBeOrNotToBe..

Oh and don’t forget that vets here need to make a living and support their families,it doesn’t mean because they chose to become a vet because they love animals they should treat your cat for free.
Speedy231058

There are always two sides to every story – today I took my cat to an excellent greek vet who I had been recommended to some time ago. She has immunised my cats and now neutered mother cat and in a few months she will neuter our two kittens. All this at a very reasonable price – certainly less than i would pay in England. What ToBeOrNotToBe said is quite right – Greek vets have to earn a living as well…. I worked for 30 years in England mainly with children – would I have done it for free… NO – I couldnt have afforded it – I had a family to look after – why should we expect the Greek vets to work for free?
I know for a fact that most vets in England charge when you take a stray in to be neutered – I have even been turned away from one English vet and sent to the RSPCA when I took a stray dog in with a severely lacerated leg !! Yes there are charities that will do it for a minimum cost or even free – however I have yet to meet a poor English/Dutch /German vet…. so lets not jump on the Greeks as if they are the worst of the worst.
However what we need to do is to get to the bottom of the issue about charity vets being threatened… if they were – who by – what form did this threatening take??? This needs to be made public so that the perpetrators can be bought to task… – if this has happened they are staining the good name of other Greek vets.
If someone had made comments that the work I did with children was ineffectual and wrong because I got paid for it I would have been furious and would have ensured my voice was heard – maybe extremely loudly – this could have been construed as threatening but I wouldnt have threatened anybody physically… we need to get to the bottom of this statement to see what form the threats took and then make informed decisions from that.

I am sure that the genuine greek vets have no problem with STRAY cats being neutered by charity vets – however. the word we are looking at here is STRAY… I believe its the citizens who want to take advantage of getting something done for nothing with their own cats who are causing the problem here. My cat was a stray – I adopted her and having made that decision I now understand that I have to pay for the privilege of looking after her….
From what I have read here the charity vets are saying that Greek vets are poorly qualified – well Im sorry but thats an unfair statement – there are good and bad vets all over the world – I have certainly come across bad practice in England!!
Perhaps the answer is to all meet up and come to an agreement – I am sure there are enough stray cats abandoned in Plaka to keep the charity vets occupied – they can come and look after the animals that ARK rescue and give their time and effort to this worthwhile charity – enabling them to spend the money they collect on building up food supplies and other worthwhile projects – they could work side by side with the greek vets putting their time in the surgeries working for free on the strays that were brought in whilst the greeks earnt their living looking after animals who had human owners – but handing out leaflets/telling the general populace that Greek vets are in effect worthless is only going to cause bad feeling and a tit for tat reaction.
At the end of the day we should be thinking about the animals not fighting between ourselves
- ToBeOrNotToBe..
  
  Thank you
Sarahlouiseheathcote

The situation in Kos is of course, appalling, but to simply label the vets as badly trained and uncaring is firstly not true and secondly simplifies a complicated issue involving government apathy, bureaucracy and the general population’s attitude to animals in general. I know for a fact that my dog, had it been in England two years ago, would most likely have died because very few vets would have come out in the middle of the night on a Saturday and stayed with us for the next two hours. Furthermore, every time that I have visited my vet she has been nothing but professional and caring but it is unreasonable to demand that the vets here administer care to all the strays free of charge – even if they had the time and resources to do it they would quickly go out of business – it is just not possible. For now, I know that my vet does her best when she can and I don’t think we can ask any more than that.
- Mambo
  
  Organisations as Tierhilfe Kos show great courage, to help the animals who cannot help themselves.
  Something hás to be done!
  Maria and Tierhilfe Kos deserve only all possible support and help from all of us.
  
  “It is a man’s sympathy with all creatures that first makes him truly a man”.
  –Albert Schweiter.
- ToBeOrNotToBe..
  
  Thank you Sarahlouiseheathcote,right on!
Mambo

Organisations as Tierhilfe Kos show great courage, to help the animals who cannot help themselves.
Something hás to be done!
Maria and Tierhilfe Kos deserve only all possible support and help from all of us.

“It is a man’s sympathy with all creatures that first makes him truly a man”.
–Albert Schweiter.
LBillis

Anyone that says there is not a problem on Kos regarding stray animals is either a liar or blinded. There is a huge problem, i agree that the local vets should be used to deal with the problem in co-ordination with a group of overseas vets as the problem is so large. We cannot expect local vets to treat the stray animals for free, this should be government funded!!
The Island badly needs at least one sanctuary for the animals to be housed while awaiting new home or recovering from injuries or sterilisation, animals should not be put straight back onto the street after any sort of operation, i understand that there is currently sometimes no alternative but what is the point to spend money operating on an animal if it will die from infection or side effects from surgery??
The Charities on the island need to work with the local people as it is the only way forward, this is Greece!! We need to work with the Greeks!! Any locals that oppose the work that the charities are doing are not the people you want to be involved with!
The authorities need to start enforcing laws and not even animal cruelty laws are the only ones being disregarded.
It is time for Greece to “Man Up” and become a real European country.
- ToBeOrNotToBe..
  
  The government tries to cut back on so many like in the health and pension section,etc,etc,there are so many important issues that needs improving ..strays is the last thing they worry about at the moment I’m afraid.