Click on July 28 at 11am then move the scroll bar along the bottom to the right, until you hit "35 minutes" which is when the segment starts. It only lasts about 20 min but it's worth hearing.
http://www.cknw.com/audiovault/audiovault.cfm
Brigitta McMillan was on air and made good comments, as she was just in Greece and saw the stray dogs first hand. The Greek Consular General (George Aravositas) was full of lies and totally contradicted previous official Greek statements. He denied any killings/poisonings, but his counterparts already acknowledged them in the Toronto Sun July 21st edition. See below hi-lighted in red:
Wed, July 21, 2004
Athletes enraged over dog killings
SAY COC SHOULD TAKE A STAND
By KEVIN CONNOR, TORONTO SUN
SOME OF Canada's Olympic athletes are outraged the Canadian Olympic Committee won't take a stand against Athens officials who are poisoning up to 15,000 stray dogs in the city so the country looks pristine during the games. "It's horrible, but it has nothing to do with us. We have no official comment," said COC spokesman Stacey Smith.
Since Athens officials are doing this for the Olympics, it has everything to do with the COC, said Olympic runner Leah Pells.
"It makes me sick. The COC is pathetic and they need to take a stand. It's embarrassing to me that they won't do anything," Pells said.
'ILLS OF SOCIETY'
"Sporting organizations can and should influence the ills in society," said Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Daniel Igali.
Poisoning is a slow, agonizing death, Lynda Elmy of the Toronto Humane Society said.
"We should all stand up and there should be a huge outcry against this because we are sending athletes to the games. It's just appalling," Elmy said.
AESTHETIC REASONS
Athens officials have said the city needs to be dog free for the games for aesthetic reasons, said Dianne Alden of Greek Animal Rescue Canada, which is working with international animal protection groups to stop the slaughter.
"It's deliberate, appalling -- people need to know," she said.
It's not a situation we are proud of, said George Ayfantis, spokesman for the (Greek) Embassy of the Hellenic Republic in Ottawa.
"It's not automatic that 15,000 will be killed. Poisoning dogs is traditional but now illegal. Local officials have extended autonomy and it's done at night. It's considered a minor offence and public prosecutors and police don't want to go after elected officials," he said.
"There are animal lovers around the world expressing their fears. The embassy is doing their utmost for their cause."
http://www.actionagainstpoisoning.com/pages/uk/greece.html
Latest news from Ms. Koubena: The mayor of Athens is putting the collected dogs in a shelter called Stegi Zoon, which has been visited by a couple of people from animal welfare societies in Athens. The question of how many dogs are being kept and how many are being put down is still not answerable.
Elizabeth Koubena's (SPAZ - Society for the Protection of Stray Animals, Glyfada, Athens, Greece) text about the poisoning of dogs in Greece which previously appeared in these pages has been removed as Greek authorities have accused the author of slandering them.
Ms Koubena's new authorized text is as follows:
Anti-Poison Campaign continues in Greece but under different guidelines.
The Ministry of Agriculture has strongly denied that they have any intention of carrying out a mass poisoning of strays before the Olympics. They have replied to our accusations in Greek and English and at a meeting with Ministry officials, they have told us in person; THEY SAY THAT THEY HAVE NO PLAN TO POISON THE STRAYS. We have no reason to doubt them. But we also feel that all the letters send to them discouraging them from carrying out such a campaign may have influenced them to seek saner alternatives. So thank you to everyone who did write the government and Greek tourist organization.
Since we began this campaign last fall, a lot of things have happened. WSPA met with the Ministry of Agriculture and suggested a program to deal with the strays before the Olympics - the main thrust being to collect the dogs and put them in municipal shelters (with set-up money from the EU).
This proposal is now being discussed in parliament. On the surface, this may seem like a logical solution but animal welfare groups are very concerned about a number of things. First, municipal shelters do not have a good reputation in this country - being poorly run, poorly financed, with no on-going program for sterilization, vaccination, homing, education, etc. This is not to say that this cannot be changed but how will this come about?
Secondly, there is no need for all strays to be collected; many live in protected neighborhoods where they have been neutered, vaccinated and tagged and are fed and looked after by the local people. Could the Ministry cooperate with local animal welfare groups about these protected strays? It makes no sense to pick them up and put them in shelters as they are no threat to those attending the Olympics. Lastly, and more importantly, what will happen to these dogs in these shelters? Will they become dog concentration camps? There are already a number of shelters in this country which qualify as nothing more than this. SPAZ and other groups have been trying to close one shelter down in which the owner keeps dogs in cages tied to the ceiling; after years of contacting Ministry officials, petitions, photos and videos showing the horrendous condition in which the animals are being kept, NOTHING has happened. The government says we have no right to go in and rescue these animals no matter how much evidence we have that they are being cruelly treated and they refuse to close it. And this is not the only shelter run in this way. Animal welfare groups are, therefore, understandably wary of the government proposal to set up dozens (perhaps hundreds?) of dog shelters. They fear that the dogs will simply go there and die.
There is a rumor that the city of Athens is already collecting stray dogs and putting them in a shelter somewhere or perhaps putting all of them down. There is no proof of this but considering the hysteria generated by the word euthanasia in Greece, if the city were in fact collecting dogs and putting them down, they could hardly admit it. If they are collecting them, people want to know where this shelter is. There is much going on that is secretive and this worries all of us in animal welfare.
Even though the government says they are NOT planning any poison campaign, it is a fact that each year, there is a culling of stray animals by poison in this country. Who carries it out? The educated guess is both individuals and municipalilties. The present anti-poison campaign is targeting this practice. We need to educate people that this is not the solution to the stray animal problem. It is both extremely cruel and illegal to poison strays. And not only strays get poisoned. Many homed animals also die as a result. Mykonos is the best example... poisoned food was thrown into the yards of about 30 local residents a few years ago and many animals died. Part of the education process also discourages people from abandoning their animals, something occurring quite regularly in Greece. Abandoned animals only add to the stray population and in areas where local strays are neutered and maintain a stable community, a new stray dog always creates a problem, both for the dogs and humans.
The general population is against poisoning animals. So it is hoped that with time, education, more neutering, vaccinating and homing, the tide will turn and poisoning strays will NOT be considered an alternative.
If you want to send a letter to any government authority or to the Greek Tourist Organization, please encourage them to work for humane and intelligent programs to decrease the number of strays. Suggest that they encourage local officials to discourage poisoning of strays. Suggest that they consider a state-wide free neutering program. Suggest that they cooperate with local animal welfare groups since they have been the ones working for years to solve the stray animal problem and have the most experience in dealing with strays.
Elizabeth C. Koubena
SPAZ - Society for the Protection of Stray Animals, Glyfada, Athens, Greece