Nea Filadelphia dog shelter has been situated in a walled area inside a park in the very centre of Athens for many years. Run by a determined and dedicated band of senior and junior volunteers headed by the wonderful Mrs Kiki, the shelter has rescued, rehabilitated and rehomed many thousands of dogs and cats in its time, essentially doing the job which is the legal duty of the local municipality.

Despite conditions at the shelter being less than perfect, despite the vast numbers of dogs the shelter has no choice but to take in and despite the constant threat of forced closure by Government officials, it’s impossible to walk into the shelter and not to be struck but the amazing hard work, passion and dedication of the volunteers determined to make the animals’ lives as good as they possibly can be under the circumstances. Volunteers finance the running of the shelter entirely from fundraising events and donations and have made huge improvements to the living conditions for the dogs, building a large exercise area for the dogs to run free and pens for the more stressed dogs. They have also worked hard with the help of trainers to improve dogs who have issues to give them a better prospect of becoming adoptable. What has always stood out for me whenever I have visited is the huge number of young people giving up their free time to volunteer at the shelter. Mrs Kiki, who has been the driving force behind the shelter for many years, also goes into schools to give educational talks to the children on the importance of caring for and respecting animals, hopefully creating the building blocks for a better future for animals in Greece. The shelter has an enviable record of domestic adoptions and has also been the stepping stone to countless adoptions outside of Greece.

For the past three years the shelter has been under constant threat of closure by the Government. Like almost all Greek shelters, it started small and ended up big, it is technically ‘illegal’ and eventually it became an inconvenience; so there has been a protracted campaign to force the shelter to close and the dogs and cats to be shifted elsewhere. The site has been earmarked for development as a new football stadium which meant the shelter has come under increasing pressure and after fighting their case in the courts the volunteers are finally defeated and have suddenly been given a date to vacate the site by 5th July….just 3 weeks’ notice.

Because of the repeated attempts to close the shelter the volunteers have been concentrating heavily on finding homes for as many of the residents as they possibly can and the number of dogs has been reduced from 120+ to 45 adult dogs and 23 puppies. Of course the pressure to close and find a solution for all of the dogs already in the shelter hasn’t stopped selfish and irresponsible local people from continuing to abandon their unwanted dogs and puppies there….

There is a little light at the end of the tunnel in that the volunteers have managed to find a suitable alternative site to take the dogs to but of course it will need much work and money to prepare it before any dogs can be taken there…..and the clock is ticking fast for the dogs and cats.

We at CARAT have started this fundraiser as a desperate appeal for help for the difficult days ahead as the volunteers struggle to ready the new site to be ready for the animals. It is going to take a Herculean effort to make the new premises ready but with our help and support then we can make it a little easier for them. Please please share this fundraiser and if you can donate anything at all then it will be so gratefully received and so well used. Together we can do so much more……