From the newspaper Kathimerini March 27 2005

By George Frantzeskakis
[email protected]

Pet Trafficking or in other words the strays at the service of the global industry
A case that leaves behind traces of blood…..

Have you ever wondered about the value of the animal that you just came across? Not in terms of emotional “chips” but in terms of Euros. The stray animal is an untiring worker of the global industry. Pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, weapons, furs and the list has no end. And in all of these gigantic assembly lines of wealth, the stray animal, a slave without any prospects of salvation, is sacrificed daily in numbers that would make the hearts of many skip a beat, even for just a moment.

Behind the back of the “civilized” old hag, Europe, a crime is being committed. Because everybody has the need for cheap experimental mammals, and because the companies that “produce” them legally have lifted their prices to the sky high (600-1500 Euros per price), small and larger “companies” of smugglers have formed in all the countries that possess an oversupply of strays, and they promote them directly to their interested customers at competitive prices. This is called Pet Trafficking.

It sounds like a script from a book by Philip K. Dick, but it is the sick reality. And what makes it even more horrible is the pretense that is being used: Under the nose of the authorities (in our country the responsible ministries are those of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Transportation and Culture, as I would say – appear indifferent as they try to hide the problem under the carpet, however the carpet has formed a bulge that (everybody can see) animals “are given for adoption” to animal loving families that exist only on paper, on photos and the imagination of animal lovers with good faith and who believe that they are securing the stray animal in their neighborhood a better life.

In Greece various animal welfare organizations operate semi-legally and they secretly send tens of stray animals, four-legged “Greeks” without the necessary documentation which is COMPULSORY by law, and there is no formal mechanism to check the procedure.

Some of these groups are neck deep in dirt. Their bully like actions and their bewilderment to produce even one sound explanation proves this. Some other groups are, as I would like to believe, involuntary accomplices in a crime that they do not want to accept because the truth will hurt them deeply. I admit that I recently found myself in such a position recently. However, the evidence that I saw, evidence that the “devil of Ecology”, Popi Baka has accumulated with great efforts, are crushing and leave no doubt, not even for the sake of the pretenses. Because it concerns months of hard work, I would like this piece to be the preface to her research which I hope to see published very soon, so that the slow moving, giant called the STATE, can finally take action and stop this disgrace which insults not only those who love the animals but all those who believe that this country should maintain a minimum level of dignity.

And because the publication is soon to come, the organized animal welfare people, who have participated in such suspicious transports, should separate their positions from now, while there is still time. Otherwise, I am afraid that before they know it they will be taken to court, and then their lack of intention will not help them very much. Something will change in this country. Naturally or by force, in a rush or in an organized fashion, slowly orslightly faster. And we will be witnesses and judges. Something wil change soon. And not only verbally……

Popi Baka and Elefterios Kariatoglou from Tetrapodologein.
 

Original: