Incredible brutality on the streets of Kilkis.
Dear fellow citizens,
Dog poisoning is the order of the day...
The Kilkis Animal Friendly Society presents the latest string of events and asks you to draw your own conclusions.
Unfortunately in recent years the problem of stray dogs in our town has not been resolved, despite the endeavours and appeals to the Municipal Authority by our Society. We have received hundreds of emails via our site (http://www.kilkis-animal-friendly.org) and letters from animal-lovers, who have experienced the latest spate of brutal acts which have taken place on various evenings in our town. On the 12th of May members of our Society discovered that on 25 Martiou Street in Kilkis, in the presence of the Deputy Mayor Epameinondas Kokovidis, Council employees were carrying out Mr Kokovodis' orders and were attempting to round up stray dogs and load them onto a lorry. The members of the Kilkis Animal Friendly Society intervened and the dogs were set free, and despite repeated demands to be told where the Council employees had planned to take the dogs we received no concrete answer. Furthermore, later the same evening poisoned food was left near Kilkis Fourth Junior School, which killed many animals - dogs, puppies and cats. Their bodies were later found strewn in the small parks and surrounding streets there, with the result that many townspeople, animals lovers and otherwise, called to inform members of the Kilkis Animal Friendly Society about this abhorrent spectacle.
The latest act of barbarity came on the morning of the 12th of June (Holy Spirit Day): in the area between Thessaloniki Street and 25 Martiou Street 15 dogs were killed in the most cowardly, illegal and violent way, a way which has no place in a town which wishes to be called "civilised". All the dogs in 25 Martiou Street suffered a horrific death by poisoning amid lakes of foaming saliva and in unbearable pain in full view of horrified passers-by. Those dogs that hadn't yet died were being stuffed into black plastic bags by a Council worker to die of asphyxiation.
On the same day, a gentleman from Thessaloniki visiting Kilkis with his pet labrador retriever, Arapis, walked him in the small park opposite the Town Hall. Within minutes, three-year-old Arapis was dead (picture to the left). This is the horror that awaits dogs in Kilkis from poisoned meat.
It is feared that all our efforts to help the animals in Kilkis (neutering and spaying, inoculation, medical treatment) are in vain. The unjustifiable delay on the part of the Municipal Authority in implementing infrastructural works at the temporary holding "pound" for stray dogs has dramatic consequences and undermines attempts at controlling the problem. The repeated promises on the part of the Mayor have been bouncing cheques. It is time for words to be put into actions.
Let us have an end to poisonings and indifference.
It is a disgrace to a town which wants to be seen as civilised for there to have been such horrific sights as in recent days. It is the responsibility of all of us as townspeople and as human beings.
Kilkis Animal Friendly Society