Greece is a beautiful country for tourists, blue skies echo the deep blue of the seas. However, there is a dark side it is this something that the world should know about.
All over Greece there are innumerable feral and abandoned cats. A few are treated well but on the whole they are skin and bone and timid of humans. They are not healthy cats. Eye and chest infections, scars and injuries are witness to their pitiless neglect. The majority have never known a caress or warm bed. At best they are considered useful for catching mice and rats but so many are simply regarded as pests or vermin to be eliminated by inhumane methods before and after the busy tourist season. Cats that live in the tourist resorts in the summer, mysteriously disappear when the tourists have left.
This is why the Greek Cat Welfare Society was formed in 1992 to help relieve their suffering. Cats can reproduce at a phenomenal rate. A feral queen is capable of generating 2,000 cats over a period of 5 years, with the accumulative effect. Trap/Neuter/Return is now the widely recognised as being the most effective way of dealing with surplus dogs and cats.
It is successful because it prevents street cats from reproducing. If there are too many they lack food, water, shelter. Their immune systems become weak and they get sick. If we prevent the cats from reproducing the population will not grow. In time it will reduce. Also, with smaller colonies, they are not a problem and tend to survive without being killed by people who consider cats as vermin. This is the long term solution of too many cats on the streets without owners.
Since 1992 the Greek Cat Welfare Society have been constantly raising money for vets to neuter thousands of these cats each year, thereby reducing colonies in a humane way.
The cats are trapped by hundreds of rescue groups all over Greece and with our help and support, they are succeeding. Once the cats are neutered and returned they all make sure that they have sufficient food and each day they are fed.
Our work is on the mainland and on many of the islands. We are also continually helping to set up new groups all over the Country. This year we have started two such groups. One on the island of Skyros, and one in Athens. We are also now getting together a rescue group in Samos. We never refuse to help anyone in terested in becoming part of our programme.
We also have a rehoming scheme and try our best to rehome all kittens, and friendly adult cats that have been abandoned. We are very successful at this and it is very satisfying for all of us to find good homes where the cats will live their lives in comfort like all cats should.
OUR SANCTUARY/VETERINARY CLINIC/REHOMING CENTRE/EDUCATION DEPT.
We are now in the process of building a Sanctuary in the suburbs of Thessaloniki which is the second largest city in Greece. We have managed after a major fund raising effort to build the skeleton of the building, on our own land, and this Stage 1 has now been approved by the local authorities. So now we are Appealing for funds to continue with the work, the next Stage being to complete all the walls, doors, and windows, and install the plumbing and electricity. So as the money is raised we will complete a section.
Please help US to help THEM. With your help we can ensure that Greece will become a destination where no tourist is ever upset by the sights of suffering cats.
