We can' t let this shelter's 106 dogs starve!

1. In Greece, the 106 dogs in these small shelters have almost no kibble left. They will starve if nobody helps them!

"Our shelters are filled with dogs beyond their capacity sometimes. Once we give a dog for adoption, we take another one in from the streets, our phone never stops ringing about new dogs in distress. It has been more and more difficult in the past months due to the pandemic and lockdown. We thought people would get more sensitive and care more for their pets, but it is actually the opposite. They are becoming more cruel, and for us everything is harder.

Lack of food is the number one problem, because it is an everyday problem for us. Everyday we wake up and have a responsibility to these dogs, to come and feed them with something, anything we can find. They eat the cheapest dog food on the market, and we have already started to cut portions over the last few months, because we don't have enough food.

As we speak, there isn't much left. Winter is really hard for all the abandoned dogs in the area, they are cold and cannot survive if they are not fed at least once a day, we are desperate for help. It is crucial for this campaign to succeed if we want to keep helping the dogs, as the situation keeps getting worse, and numbers are rising."

2. Without kibble, the volunteers will be unable to help the street dogs anymore, and will have to stop new rescues.

"We are the only ones that are actively rescuing and taking in dogs everyday in this area, even the Mayor’s office calls us when there is a dog in need. Although there is a stray public service, they have no place for the stray dogs, so they call us every time but don’t fund us in any way for what we do.

We try to help all the dogs we find, we look after more than 30 stray dogs at this stage, that we cannot take in. If the dogs are not fed they will begin to get aggressive. They may even attack or starve to death and this is not something we want. The consequences would be huge for all the community here.

But if we cannot feed the dogs in our shelters, we will not be able to rescue as many as we've done so far, so there will be even more strays, that we won't be able to support at all, even the ones in distess. For us personally it is a life changing situation. We have no personal life or time. Our time and money all go to the dogs, they are our whole life."

3. Seriously injured by a car, Vicky was rescued in emergency 20 days ago. She also suffered from parvovirus, she will not survive without kibble.

"Vicky is a young female that was found 20 days ago, she was rescued after being hit by a car at Kalo Nero. People called us, and we took her to the vet. She had smashed one of her legs really bad, she had a huge wound, the bone was showing. We ran some tests and she also had parvovirus.

She has suffered, and at first she couldn’t move at all but now she is getting better. She is also getting treatment for her illness, but she needs to keep being fed properly, or she will never be able to fully recover."

4. Giannis, Theoni and Orsa stick together, but they are struggling with debts, they can no longer buy kibbles!

"It is difficult because people don’t always have the means to support our cause, and it has been more and more difficult in the past months due to the lockdown. We have fewer donations, but more dogs to care for. The Mayor's office has said over and over in the past months that they would help with dog food, they never do it and we cannot count on this.

We buy food on our own and ask for food from friends, but it is harder and harder everyday. We all have debt at the pet store and the vet that we try to divide between the three of us so we can cope with it. We do not go out for fun, for coffee or dinner with friends in order to save money for dog food, not even talking about the other costs related to their care, such as medicine for instance. 

Food remains the main issue, the priority. Which also means that the ongoing problems to find enough food prevents us from coping with the other problems, such as shelter locations, vaccines, adoptions etc..."

5. The volunteers are not asking for money, only kibbles to prevent the dogs from starving.

"We spend most of our time everyday with these dogs, feeding them, helping them calm down and feel better after months of abandonment, we take care of their wounds, remove ticks that make them bleed. We try to find them families. It is very consuming physically, economically and most of all emotionally.

People often think we get paid for what we do, while we don't, and quite often don't sterilise their own pets, which leads to more stray puppies. We are afraid that if we decided to stop, or had to for lack of resources, other people would choose the easy way and poison these dogs : here in Greece, poison is too often the solution to strays.

We are able to act for these animals, and to control the situation for them, but we are in desperate need of support for food and medicine for our dogs."

6. If this campaign succeeds, the shelter will receive not any money but 2160 kg of kibbles, delivered from the Animal Webaction logistics platform in Greece.

Animal Webaction has a logistics platform in Greece, which enables us to intervene quickly and deliver kibbles.

7. Donations are decreasing while the number of dogs in distress continues to increase, the volunteers need this campaign to be able to continue their actions.

"Unfortunately there's been no contact established with new organisations these past months.  As the abandoned dogs are increasing in numbers, with especially many puppies which means vaccines, more medicine, more time etc... We are always running from one thing to another.

Travel restrictions have also been very problematic, and have impacted our actions as well as adoptions, since people cannot move freely. Except going out in the streets to find and care for new strays we have to go online and post about them in order to find new families to adopt them. Keeping the online page up to date is a full time job on itself."

8. Campaigns launched on Animal Webaction often fail.

When a campaign fails, Animal Webaction cannot deliver the products. The beneficiary doesn't receive anything and the buyers are refunded. 

9. Greece counts thousands of stray dogs, and the pandemic is making their situation worse. Volunteers such as Giannis, Theoni and Orsa are their only hope.

If you know of a foundation or NGO that could help Giannis, Theoni and Orsa, please invite them to contact us so that we can put them in touch.

If you represent an animal protection foundation or NGO, please help the dogs at the shelter, contact us and we will put you in touch!

If you want to come to the volunteers' shelter or if you want to send them directly kibbles or a cheque, contact them via the association's Facebook page (note: direct help is your own responsibility).

10. If you make a purchase on Animal Webaction, it will be protected by our guarantees