Life With Dogs: Greece Passes Revolutionary Animal Cruelty Laws After Horrific Abuse

Greece is taking strides towards protecting the rights of dogs and other animals throughout their nation. How? The Greek parliament recently passed a law that punishes animal abuse with up to 10 years in prison! They unanimously voted to require a minimum of one year and fines between 5,000 to 15,000 euros. However, the worst offenders of “serious animal abuse” will face up to a decade behind bars.

What Is Considered Serious Animal Abuse?

Determining the definition of serious animal abuse can be filled with gray areas. While you or I may think that anything short of a life of luxury can be argued as abuse, the eye of the law obviously must think otherwise. The parliament defines “serious animal abuse” as poisoning, burning, mutilation, and hanging. These words may make you cringe as you read them however, they come at a very important time for animal rights in Greece.

Makis Voridis is Greece’s agriculture minister. He told local news sources that the law sends a “strong message” which was needed after recent incidents of abuse that had the country in an uproar. While the abuse of animals unfortunately isn’t anything new, there were a couple of events in October of this year that catapulted the need for strict laws into the limelight.

Horrific Abuse Of Two Dogs Sparked Public Outrage, Highlighted The Need For Change

The following information may be hard to read so proceed with caution.

In early October, a dog was allegedly hanged and castrated with a pair of pliers by his owner in Crete. Luckily, the dog was rescued by passing tourists and taken to a local animal charity. He was then miraculously rehabilitated by a vet. Sadly, the vet said he had never seen an animal of any species survive after suffering such catastrophic injuries.

A school teacher was arrested later in October near Athens after the first horrific event. He had stabbed a dog in the chest and stomach multiple times. This caused a pierced lung in addition to deep lacerations. A neighbor also beat the dog with a metal rod while others videotaped the abuse.

The later incident sparked such intense outrage that crowds gathered outside of the teacher’s house and demanded justice for the helpless dog. Thanks to the new laws, their voices and the cries of the abused dogs were finally heard.

The new law not only calls for stricter penalties, but it also makes prosecution of animal abusers easier.

There is one more bit of good news: Both dogs who suffered the unimaginable abuse mentioned above had surgery and are recovering from their attacks. We hope they get to experience true love once and for all!