Supervising Agricultural Minister Vangelis Apostolou has once again been forced to withdraw the draft law for pets and strays in the country, which the majority of the public deemed cruel and irrational.
The new draft law would transfer all management of strays and pets to municipalities, penalising stray’s care and adoption promotions via social media. The cruel amendments to the law would also fine vets for helping animals that have not been desexed and microchipped and impose several fees, taxers and even fines on pet owners.
“The draft law will be re-introduced when relevant changes have been made,” Apostolou said in a short statement earlier this week defending the draft in was was described as “aggressive tone” by his critics on social media.
The aim was to transfer the management of strays to municipalities, excluding animal welfare societies from the process while creating online e-shops for the adoption of strays via municipalities websites.
“Foreigners could combine their holidays in Greece with the adoption of an animal by surfing in the municipalities websites,” the draft states.
People posting on social media or other media promoting pet adoption would see fines up to 1,000 euros.
Meanwhile, sterilisation of all pets would be mandatory unless an owner would have one male and one female animal where each animal would require a cash fee of 100 euros. Non – sterilised pets would also be fined with 100 euros.
The new proposal would also enforce accommodation criteria for pet owners who would have to register their pets at the municipality and have mandatory passports issued at 15 euros. The passports would have to be found on the owner even when taking the dog (or cat) for a walk around the area, not only when travelling. The fine for not complying was suggested at 300 euros.
Only one pet would be kept in a flat of 35 sq meters. Dogs would require an additional dog house even if in an apartment lacks balcony or backyard space.
Vets would be prohibited from treating non-sterilised and non-microchipped animals brought in even if they were seriously injured or sick; a violation would see the vet be fines with 3,000 euros.
A fee would also be imposed on pet food, and another 10 euro fee on every sterilised pet.
While the extent of some of these measures and the amount of fines that would go towards people caring for strays may seem absurd, the same draft-law suggested reduced penalties for animal abuse.
Moreover, the draft-bill only recognises cats and dogs as companion animals; bunnies, guinea pigs, birds, reptiles and so on are not considered pets.
Additionally, every person that cares, feeds, protects in any way a stray animal would be defined as an animal owner asked to pay for every animal he is seen feeding or interacting with on the street. The new measures “will force volunteers to stop caring for stray animals thus keeping stray animals off the streets”.
At the moment, animal welfare organizations had taken it upon themselves to procure marking microchips at a low cost from the free market making it easy for people wanting to adopt pets to do so. This would no longer be legal; only municipalities would be able to issue microchips at a much higher cost.
Animal welfare organisations and animal owners are pushing for the minister’s resignation as the government is now allowing massive euthanasia and exile of strays, or pets that cannot be kept in the house based on the new amendments. If such a bill is passed thousands of Greek citizens would be obliged to discard their pets.
According to media, Apostolou withdrew the draft law following a meeting the Panhellenic Animal Welfare and Environment Federation and which was supposed to remain for consultation for three months. However, the first draft of the law was withdrawn in February 2018 and was reintroduced this week in even harsher form.
After the withdrawal announcement, veterinarians, animal welfare organisations stated that “we will fight with all our means to ensure no such animals law comes to effect,” adding that the new draft bill should not just list cats and dogs as pets. Thousands of vets and animal lovers that have made it their life’s cause to care for animals demand that they won’t be fined or persecuted for treating strays or wild animals.
Minister Giannis Tsironis of Greece’s Eco-Greens party said in a statement that the new draft-bill will be released for public consultation in 30 days.