A program of the Interior Ministry will allocate 2.9 million euros to 18 municipalities of Greece for stray cat and dog facilities, it was announced on Tuesday.
The “Argos” program will gradually provide a total of 40 million euros to meet their new obligations, which include taking care of stray domesticated animals by building animal shelters.
“With today’s decisions for funding, municipalities have already received nearly 5 million euros, against the 600,000 euros provided for annually under the old framework,” Alternate Interior Minister Stelios Petsas said.
PS Hopefully the money will indeed go for the welfare of stray cats and dogs and not to the usual pockets or were allocated to cover other municipality needs as the recent past has often shown as in Sparti or in Preveza.
“PS Hopefully the money will indeed go for the welfare of stray cats and dogs and not to the usual pockets or were allocated to cover other municipality needs as the recent past has often shown as in Sparti or in Preveza.”
Or to bring spurious law suits against volunteer groups who are doing the municipalities’ work for them, funded by donation, as happened in Chania. Fortunately, in that case, the volunteer group won but the spurious law suit could have bankrupted the people running it.
Let’s hope that if, as Warwick points out, the money is used solely for animal welfare, it is used in a sensible and useful way. Animal welfare is not about building large compounds to contain more strays but, rather, housing them in properly designed runs. Money needs to be spent on training staff to care for the animals and not just do it because it’s a paying job. Furthermore, rehoming strays needs to be addressed.
This has gone on for years and is one of the reasons I don’t travel to or spend money in Greece.