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

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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