Greece, Again!

[Guest guest]

 

Marijo Gillis [TwinkiePerkyEbby]

Tuesday, March 01, 2005 11:10 PM

Alexandra Yurkiw

URGENT MARIJO/WAG A LOOK INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

 

KINDLY CROSS POST TO THE MOON and BACK and to AR NETWORK

 

I hope you are all well and bearing up under the stresses and heartaches

of activism. I've been silent but active; traveling to South America and

the equatorial islands, trying desperately to evoke positive government

action and local outreach agendas for the tens of thousands of gravely

ill and dying strays that roam this part of " our " world. As well, I

have been commissioned to help develop a TV program here in New York,

and oddly enough have managed to get involved in real estate as another

means of funding WAG's animal related work. Many of you have

compassionately continued to express concern and interest regarding the

animals of Greece. For this, I am so grateful to you.

 

Kindly bear with me and read to the end. We desperately need your

support and action. Thank you all with all my heart.

Love, and respect,

Marijo

Post-Olympics Greece or A Look into the Belly of the Beast

 

All together, we waged a two year long, high pressure campaign to

disrupt the Greek governments frightful endeavor to " clean " the streets

for the 2004 Athens Olympics. The disaster specific products of this

national exercise in genocide were thousands of dead and maimed animals.

 

 

Thanks to our persistent lobbying and the better late than never support

of national animal welfare powerhouses in the USA, Greece pulled up her

bikini bottoms but only when the spotlight was cast upon her. According

to Greek sources, most of the surviving abandoned street dogs of Athens,

purportedly " saved " by the municipal government in a last ditch effort

to appear " virginal " before the world and the press, are nowhere to be

found. The creators and purveyors of animal protection laws are

selectively short sighted. Dirty money allegedly sprints from

outstretched hand to pocket and the underlying fundamental mindset of a

large share of the nation remains unchanged. Neglect and abuse continues

and some animal advocates in Greece wage an enduring battle against each

other in a contest of pathetic egos. I believe that it is time once

again for us to position Greece at center stage.

 

Compounding the " sinful " behavior of certain government entities and

some citizens, the Greek Church is now scrambling to salvage their

credibility as scandal after scandal emerges with clerics implicated in

drug dealing, antiquities theft, trial rigging, drug dealing,

prostitution and lewd conduct. Judges and prosecutors are linked

incestuously with the priestly criminals. My God, what chance do the

animals of Greece have?

 

I have always been an unabashed admirer of the beauty of Greece, and

lived there, while married for 14 years. In the last few months I have

temporarily distanced myself because of total disappointment in a brutal

society, runaway corruption, a confluence of indifference, ignorance and

a lack of compassion.

 

If Greece's historic standards and trends are any indication of future

hope for elevating the status of companion and farmed animals, we are

screwed, nope, correction, the animals are screwed.

 

Certain government entities have not only made a mockery of the " games " ,

and their proud claim of giving " birth to civilization " but of the Greek

state and it's incestuously linked church as well. The metastasizing

scandals have cast an indelible shadow over the integrity of an entire

nation. Greece has become a blank space in the halls of civilization.

 

Again, I believe that it is time once again for us to position Greece at

center stage. A certain Greek citizen and her sidekick attorney are on

an unholy crusade to stop the re homing of abandoned animals to

adoptive, loving " parents " in Europe and the United States. She

slanders by " testifying " that " foreign " and Greek animal activists are

engaging in commercial " dog trade " and supplying vivisectionists and fur

dealers abroad. Oddly, she has convinced the crippled Ministry of

Agriculture that this is true and illegal confiscations of these poor

dogs in transit to salvation are rampant

 

I wouldn't waste my time and yours if I didn't believe that once again

we will gain the startled attention of the Greek state and lobby for

justice for the animals.

 

Please, please friends, copy and paste the addresses of Greek officials

and the body of the letter that follows below to an e-mail, sign your

name, address and country and let's blast them

 

ax2u098

kontos01

nycons

anastasi

mfa

w3admin

espresso

tanea

 

cc Twinkieperkyebhy <ccTwinkieperky

cc: info; info

 

Illegal and unjustified seizure of dogs from Crete - URGENT!

 

Gentlemen:

 

Foreign journalists and Greek activists report that on February 27, 58

abandoned dogs from the island of Crete en route to re-homing in

Germany, were illegally confiscated by the Piraeus port police at the

" command " of Greek citizen Ioanna Garagouni and her attorney, Mrs.

Lekakou, well known for disrupting animal welfare in Greece. The dogs,

formerly abused and abandoned were the companion animals of the Arche

Noah Kreta Sanctuary on the island of Crete. The frightened dogs were

transported to an unknown location by these opponents of the foreign and

Greek animal welfare organizations

 

This latest appalling activity regarding Greek animals and the skewed

rulings of the Greek Ministry of Agriculture is being covered by the

European press. We all remember the mass slaughter of abandoned street

dogs prior to the Olympic Games, the tiny kitten that was set on fire

and died weeks later and other,countless acts of cruelty and neglect.

Mrs. Garagouni and attorney Lekakou are slandering and libeling foreign

animal advocates, accusing them of providing Greek dogs to vivisection

and experimental laboratories. These accusations are ludicrous if not

downright crazy.

 

Is Mrs. Garagouni a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture? Are

Minister Vasiakos and Deputy Minister Kontos responsible for giving this

woman and her attorney the authority to illegally intercept animal mercy

missions and slander foreign countries? Further, we have have received

many reports from volunteers in Greece who have been arrested or

threatened with arrest by authorities for saving, treating feeding or

neutering stray dogs. This is unspeakable and unacceptable. As well,

German and English volunteers accompanying the abandoned Greek dogs to

adoptive families in Germany were illegally detained by the port police,

once again at the hysterical urging of Ms. Garagouni and Mrs. Lekakou.

 

Be informed gentlemen, that the dogs have owners in Germany and we will

urge the owners to take legal action against the Ministry of

Agriculture, it's employees and the Piraeus Port Police, (also Mrs.

Garagouni and Ms. Lekakou) for their positions and inability to

resolve the difficulties arising from an ineffective and unenforceable

law and problematic ministerial decision which must be repealed.

 

Greece is an EU member and should behave as such. Boundaries do not

exist for EU citizens. Citizens travel between EU countries with only

an ID . We urge you to constitute a Ministerial decree facilitating the

passage of unwanted, Greek strays to loving families in Europe and the

United States. We urge you to curtail the ridiculous activities of Mrs.

Garagouni and her attorney.

Please attend to this unfortunate and very serious issue. We will

curtail tourism to Greece if rapid improvements are not made for the

animals of Greece.

 

We thank you in advance for a prompt response.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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