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"sausage" An Iconic Resident Of Athens


Alyosha
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Love this story and the approach Athens City has taken to it's stray dog management, thinking outside the square: http://au.news.yahoo.com/odd/a/-/odd/10416481/tear-gas-woof-its-sausage-the-athens-riot-dog/

ATHENS (Reuters) - There he is, yelping with delight as the youths start hurling chunks of paving stones, barking his admonition at a cordon of cops fending off petrol bombs, sneezing as he scampers through the tear gas.

Meet Sausage the riot dog, an amiable ginger mongrel resident of Syntagma Square in central Athens, who doesn't mind if you show up for a day of mayhem as long as he can join in.

Whenever there's a demonstration, Sausage is there, always taking the side of the protesters and cheerfully lending a sense of comic relief to the occasionally violent proceedings.

It's made him a local celebrity. He's appeared on the front of just about every newspaper in Greece and wagged his tail on TV screens and websites around the world.

On Wednesday when state workers marched against government cuts, Sausage was in his usual spot at the front, egging on the crowd with a hearty "Gav!" (Greek for "Woof!"), tripping up baton-wielding officers as they charged down the steps.

For the record: some people call him Kanellos -- Cinnamon. The Athens municipality, which has known him since 2006 as Dog Number 1842, prefers Loukanikos -- Sausage.

"Loukanikos or Kanellos. These are two of his many names. It's the same individual," said Anna Makri, head of the city's Stray Animal Service. "There's no other Sausage."

As head of the department, Makri was sued once because Sausage bit someone. The case is pending. "He's a loveable dog, but he's a little bit hot-blooded," she says.

Stray dogs in Athens don't look like stray dogs in other big cities. Many, Sausage included, wear collars and tags.

Instead of rounding them up and destroying them, the municipal authorities of Athens pay to feed more than 2,000 of them. They are neutered, given vaccines, identified with microchips and released back onto the street, wearing a tag with a phone number to call if they are in -- or causing -- trouble.

You can see them snoozing in the sunshine by a statue, or loitering with intent in groups of two or three outside a cafe.

"In most European countries, they solve this problem with euthanasia. But Greek culture is against that. Our law is about rehabilitating the dogs," said Makri. "People here take care of them and love them. They are like everyone's dog."

For a time there was talk that the financial crisis -- the same crisis that has prompted the demonstrations that brought Sausage his fame -- would force the city to halt the stray dog program, set up a year before the 2004 Olympics.

The program was indeed interrupted by a reorganization in recent months, but it has resumed, said Deputy Mayor Angelos Antonopoulos, himself a veterinarian. As for its most famous client: "The municipality takes especial care of him because he's so lovable. And he's also a symbol -- a symbol of freedom."

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Wow, what a different approach to stray dogs. Good on Greece.

I think the only way it could be better would be offering the dogs for adoption (the ones who are suitable for a home situation) ie: taking pics when they are getting chipped/desexed and putting them up on a website so if anyone is interested in adopting them they can.....

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Great story ! :thumbsup:

I have a friend who lives in Oia (Santorini ) who is a passionate dog lover - she has now started up a rescue programme on the island and is having a lot of success.

Good for them Mona, that is great. I keep up with the news on Paros, an island I have spent a lot of time on over the years, and they have a rescue group there called PAWS. Paros Animal Welfare Society. They are on facebook, under the name PAWS. These groups are much needed over there. On the islands, I think a lot of people go there on holidays, get a dog, and then after the extended holiday just leave the dog behind. Also, some come from the mainland and leave the dogs on the islands as well. Very sad. Sorry for going off topic. :o

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Wow, what a different approach to stray dogs. Good on Greece.

I think the only way it could be better would be offering the dogs for adoption (the ones who are suitable for a home situation) ie: taking pics when they are getting chipped/desexed and putting them up on a website so if anyone is interested in adopting them they can.....

90% of people in Athens and surrounding suburbs live in apartments, often quite small in size. From the dogs' perspective, I doubt they would be happier couped up in a small apartment for their whole lives when they can have the whole city to roam. It sounds like they have a pretty ok life!

Thank you for the article Alyosha. I will send it to my folks who live 10 mins out of Athens and get their view on it!

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I received this email from my mum:

It is true, although we’ve never heard him called Sausage. Kanellos is his name and you’ll see him in all riots in the center of town, often shown by CNN and BBC. It is also true about the rest of the dogs, each suburb has their own. In ours the Pet shop on our street put out food and water for them every day. When we buy things from them (in our case for Minoux) I always pay extra for bag of dog food for them. On Sundays when the shop is closed they come and wait outside the shop, but some ladies come and give them left overs from the Sunday lunch which is a special treat for them.

So although Greeks have a bad name for their treatment of animals, there quite a few who care.

:thumbsup:

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