LEFKAS ANIMAL WELFARE SOCIETY
reg. no. (LAWS) 558/2000
WHY ARE WE NEEDED?
Cats are synonymous with our image of Greece; friendly street dogs are to be found in almost every resort and during the summer season most fare well here on Lefkas as they live off the scraps and attention lavished by tourists. However, the end of the season tells another story. As restaurants close and tourism dwindles, cats and dogs have a much more difficult time surviving and have to look further afield for food. This often means that they stray inland to farms or congregate in town centres where they are not welcome. Consequently they often suffer a slow and painful death over the winter months – usually through a combination of traffic accidents, starvation, Leishmaniasis – a killer disease in Greece – and deliberately set poison traps. Cats and dogs give birth to unwanted litters. It’s a problem!
WHO ARE WE?
We are a small voluntary group of like-minded animal lovers who live on Lefkas all year round and who have links with other animal welfare organisations. Concerned with the problems of stray animals locally, we founded LAWS in 2000 in order to try and create a better life and conditions for them by means of vaccination, sterilising and re-homing. Longer-term aims are to combat poisoning, cruelty and neglect and to create general awareness amongst the public and authorities.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE SO FAR?
Our presence has significantly raised awareness of the problems amongst locals, seasonal workers and tourists, who now regularly report stray, injured and distressed animals to us. We are able to place animals in foster homes where they learn to live in a domestic environment, whilst we give them veterinary treatment and arrange the seemingly impossible task of finding them homes. We manage to home many dogs and cats in Greece, Germany, Holland and the UK and other countries. Our strays are vaccinated, sterilised and micro-chipped.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
If you are in a position to foster an animal – for however short a time - do contact us. If you are going to be travelling to Holland, Germany or any animal friendly country, and could take a dog with you, then please let us know. If you know of somebody who would like to home a stray from Lefkas, we can always send pictures of animals “on the waiting list”. Some of them are featured on this site. Other information can be found on:
www.lefkasgreece.com
We are very fortunate to receive a grant from Greek Animal Welfare Fund to help support our work, but there is never enough and if you would like to donate towards the expense of veterinary treatment, micro-chipping or animal-feed, our bank details are:
