Sausage, the riot dog of Greece

[sm78]

Have some laugh

http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/10/06/sausage-the-riot-dog-of-greece?videoId=222312983&videoChannel=1004


A dog at the heart of the action in Greece. Meet Sausage, the riot dog, a resident of 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 lending a sense of comic relief to the occasionally violent proceedings. He's become a local celebrity. 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, authorities in 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. For a time there was talk that the financial crisis -- would force the city to halt the stray dog program. It was indeed interrupted but has resumed with officials now calling Sausage a "symbol of freedom." Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters.

On the flip side, if only India could treat its animals with such humanity. Greece is a lovely nation and greeks are lovely people - hope they get out of this crisis soon.

[Believer]

Nice story about Sausage.

BTW, in preparation for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the city decided to tackle the issue of stray dogs. They were all rounded up, neutered/spayed and released back on the streets. Being fed by the Govt./private citizens and having no sexual desires, they are all so listless and seem to be in a perpetual sleep mode in the by-lanes of Athens. I thought they were super lazy until we were given the reason for their condition by our tour guide. Sausage, with so much oomph, must be one from the new breed who escaped being 'fixed'.

As an aside, Greeks are real friendly, hospitable people. We may hope for their revival, but the ground reality points towards very, very hard times ahead for the nation. Having lived on borrowed money for a long time, the Govt. is instituting severe austerity measures to keep the loans coming. Govt. being the biggest employer and revenue from tourism being their mainstay, one can imagine the downward spiral that they are heading into with massive layoffs and a drastic slowdown in tourism. Ancient ruins of Greece and the islands of Santorini and Mykonos are a big draw for the tourists, but with the public transport (subway/buses and even taxi service) shut down so often due to strikes and frequent violent demonstrations in the heart of the city, it has become a 'not so desirable' destination for tourists. The American and European economies are already reverberating with the expected Govt. default on their loans. Under normal conditions, Greece would have been hard pressed to pay off its debt with the institution of austerity measures, but with business activity slowing down and tourism dropping off substantially, the revenue coming into the federal treasury has decreased a lot. This would almost inevitably lead to a default - something that was synonymous in the past, with a third world (oops 'developing') country like Pakixxxx.

PS Athens was one of the few European cities where I did not find a Hindu temple. Greek ISKCON followers, few in numbers, hold their satsangs at private homes, but have no temple. Eastern orthodox Xitianity is their main religion.