:: Testimonials ::

Bobby - an injured dog

There are many stories to be told from Greece, but the one, which invariably comes to mind, is the story about Bobby. I didn’t know Bobby for more than an hour or two, yet this brief encounter will affect my life forever. In the summer of 2000, I was running a spay and neuter program on the island of Santorini, the southern most Cycladic island in the Aegean Sea and a very popular tourist destination. A gorgeous place with wonderful food and a magnificent view from Fira. However, as elsewhere in Greece, Santorini has many stray cats and dogs, the dog problem being the most visible.

Part of the deal was helping out the local animal welfare group and as such I was dispatched to one of the villages to help a dog which had been hit by a car. I feared the worst. I found the house where the dog had taken refuge, and the family pointed to its hiding place under their staircase. They had given him water and food, but were otherwise afraid of him and had not touched him. I asked them how long the dog had been there. Two weeks was the answer. I stared at them incredulously. Two weeks, I mumbled to myself in disbelief. The dog was a skeleton, its eyes glazed over with pain. Yet, the kindness was there.

There were no two ways about it; the dog had to see a vet immediately. I managed to slide him out from under the staircase, so I could lift this huge shadow of a dog and carry him to my car. He was gently placed in the back of my Golf and we set course for the veterinary clinic in Messaria. All the way, I was talking to Bobby, as I decided to call him, telling him it would all be OK very soon. This weakened dog even managed to sit up and have a look out of the window. But of course, it was not going to be OK. From the moment I saw him, I knew Bobby would not have long to live. I cried all the way to the clinic. At the clinic, he was placed on the examination table and I saw he was infested with ticks, fleas, maggots – you name it. I parted his legs to have a look at his underbelly. Wide open. There was only one thing to do: put the dog to sleep right away. As I held his paw, while the medication stopped his heart, I was thinking of the person who hit the dog and never stopped. Then about the family who cared for him for two weeks. Yet never saw the extent of the injuries the dog had sustained. It never occurred to them to bring him to the vet, or call us. Until it was too late. They were not necessarily bad people, but simply uneducated.

Anne Scheving, PAW-Europe

Santorini is an island where dogs are routinely poisoned when the tourist season is over, although certainly this happens during the season as well. Privately owned dogs are also poisoned. Dogs and cats are left to breed all over the island, and are dumped accordingly. Education is essential as well as a spay, neuter, release and identification program and enforcement of existing animal welfare legislation. The same is true of the rest of Greece.