Greek animal cruelty comes to our street

We went for a walk down to our local beach the other day under a very broody sky.

As we got near to the beach I suddenly spotted three ginger kittens scurrying along in the undergrowth, trying to clamber up a concrete kerb. They were very small, and very, very cute. "Aah, cute!", we said, and stopped to watch them.

Then we saw a fourth kitten.

And a fifth.

And a sixth.

And then we found the box that they had been abandoned in.

In all there were twelve kittens, maybe more, as at least one hadn't ventured out of the box. They'd been left out on a bleak stretch of wasteland near the beach. They were far too young to look after themselves, and were just wandering around in a bemused state whimpering and crying in the cold.

Thankfully, we think there is a happy ending to the story. We couldn't take in 13 kittens, and didn't know who to contact, but when we walked down the road the next day there was no sign of the kittens, or the box. It looked like someone must have gathered them up and rescued them.

Still, it takes real malice of forethought to have carefully packed them up in a box lined with newspaper to prevent any leakage into your car, and then dump then along a quiet stretch of road to die.

Comments

[maria]

pardon me, but i'm sure you could have thought about who to contact had you put your mind to it (eg the local council). one of my friends has a couple of cats, and whenever they have babies, after a few weeks, she takes the babies to the Agora, and dumps them at the fish market, a sensible place for cats.

the people who left them here probably knew that this was a frequent drop off point for strays, and that somebody would pick them up. that's not being cruel, it's being kind of helpful. at least they didn't throw them in a rubbish bin or drown them, both of which i know is done by others...

[Frankie Roberto]

Hmm, when you said there was a happy end to the story, I did think you were about to say that you'd taken them somewhere sensible.

Still, I imagine that Battersea Dogs and Cats home equivalents aren't exactly commonplace in your bit of Greece.

Actually Chania does have Noah's Ark which is a really busy animal protection place and refuge in the back streets of the old town - if we'd had time we could have got in touch with them

http://www.deltanet.gr/chaniascape/noahsark.htm

[Jan]

Hi,

We contacted this place http://www.deltanet.gr/chaniascape/noahsark.htm last time we were in Crete as we were "adopted" by a friendly, but obviously stray dog. We donated £50, and they kept us up to date with emails etc. after we went home. They don't demand any money, though, we just felt we should contribute. She ended up living happily in Germany! So don't walk away - there are rescue centres in Crete - they'd have taken in those kittens.