European tourist countries ~ the ugly truth
The best known European tourist countries are also those with the most important animal cruelty
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If you plan to visit a country such as Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania or Turkey, be warned! The images which you may be facing are not easy to digest:
- stray dogs and cats are wandering the streets, hungry, thirsty, often sick or injured whilst alive, or lying there dead, with foam at their mouth because they have been poisoned, or in a pool of blood because beaten to death, or run over by a car and simply left to die.
- at the countryside, you will see chained dogs or the "famous" barrel dogs if you visit Greece. Forced to live chained up on one meter chain or shorter, with old rusty barrels for dog house, or even no barrels or any protection at all. They are mostly living down deserted roads and tracks and are rarely seeing anyone. Their shelters do not give any protections to bad weather and they are like ovens during the summer months providing no relief from the scorching sun. To add to their misery they may have some dirty water or no water or food at all. They are mostly young dogs craving human companionship, most of them die before they are one year old.
- to see a dog hanging in a tree, is also not an exception.
- the Spanish hunting dogs are seen as a 'tool' and not as a living, breathing and sentient being. They can be treated as badly as it pleases and it is perfectly legal to simply discard them after the hunting season or to let them starve because of their stupid belief that a starving dog hunts better. Many are killed after a bad hunting game or when no longer needed.
- horses and donkeys have no better life either. They are still used as a cheap transportation. The animals have to work hard, often at above their own capacity. Malnutrition and lack of care make these animals live a tormented life. Horses and donkeys are often beaten even though the animal is lying down and not able to get up in order to make them do a last effort.
- Spain, Portugal and France make use of their right to celebrate their traditions in order to torture animals to death during bullfights or other outdated blood fiestas such as 'Toro de la Vega', 'Toro Jubilo', 'A Rapa das Bestas', to mention only a few.
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During the tourist season many stray animals survive thanks to the tourists, who feel sad at their plight, and feed them scraps. Most tavernas have throngs of stray cats and dogs begging for their existence, but when the tourists leave there is no food supply, and so they die of starvation and disease.
There is no sterilization programme, which would improve the situation greatly, but there is no interest in the welfare of animals, either from the authorities, nor from the public.
This results in a constant flow of kittens and puppies to replace the dying adult population, and so the sad cycle starts again, year in, year out.
The lack of vaccinations means that parvovirus and cat flu are very common, and parasite born diseases such as Leishmanisis and Ehrlrichia are prevalent - all being potentially lethal illnesses, especially in sick and starving animals.
Animals suffering with any of these conditions will rarely be offered any veterinary care, as few people bother to help them. The results are truly shocking.
None of the European tourist countries have made any serious efforts to curb the stray animal population by implementing neutering campaigns, or by informing their citizens about the importance to spay and neuter their animals and/or not to let them roam freely and mate as they wish.
Instead, they try year of after year, before the tourist season begins, to clean the streets from unwanted animals. Poisoning, although illegal, is common practice.
Dog catchers catch the animals and lock them away in public shelters that are real death camps for the animals. Out of the public eye, the animals are let to starve. Many die of the consequences of injuries and diseases left without veterinary care.
Many animals die of thirst during the hot summers, thousands freeze to death in the cold winters.
Instead, they try year of after year, before the tourist season begins, to clean the streets from unwanted animals. Poisoning, although illegal, is common practice.
Dog catchers catch the animals and lock them away in public shelters that are real death camps for the animals. Out of the public eye, the animals are let to starve. Many die of the consequences of injuries and diseases left without veterinary care.
Many animals die of thirst during the hot summers, thousands freeze to death in the cold winters.
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It is your decision whether you continue to support these countries that do not care about animals, year after year with your tourist money or not.
Have your say
during the 'Open Consultation on the European Tourism Label for Quality Systems Initiative' initiated by the European Commission
You, as an EU-citizen or an organization can now say what you think about the way animals are being treated in the European tourist countries by participating in the 'Open Consultation'.
Although this questionnaire has not been elaborated to ask people's opinion about animal welfare in the European tourist countries, we can make use of point 5. (ANY OTHER REMARKS) to let the European Commission (and the tourist countries) know, that bullfights, sadistic blood fiestas and other outdated traditions as well as the shameful treatment of stray animals and the lack of responsibility, disturbs us enough that we will not visit these countries as a tourist until we will notice a serious improvement to the situation.
Countries that largely depend on tourism, should finally take responsibility and neuter their stray animals, force their citizens to spay and neuter their companion animals and create laws to prevent that unwanted animals are being abandoned and reproduce again and again, adding new animals to this never ending cycle of misery and despair. They should start to tackle the cause of the problem instead of fighting only the effect!
You will find all information below. Please have your say before July 13, 2012!
Although this questionnaire has not been elaborated to ask people's opinion about animal welfare in the European tourist countries, we can make use of point 5. (ANY OTHER REMARKS) to let the European Commission (and the tourist countries) know, that bullfights, sadistic blood fiestas and other outdated traditions as well as the shameful treatment of stray animals and the lack of responsibility, disturbs us enough that we will not visit these countries as a tourist until we will notice a serious improvement to the situation.
Countries that largely depend on tourism, should finally take responsibility and neuter their stray animals, force their citizens to spay and neuter their companion animals and create laws to prevent that unwanted animals are being abandoned and reproduce again and again, adding new animals to this never ending cycle of misery and despair. They should start to tackle the cause of the problem instead of fighting only the effect!
You will find all information below. Please have your say before July 13, 2012!
Target group(s): Public and private organisations, individuals.
Period of consultation: From 13.04.2012 to 13.07.2012
Objective of the consultation: Currently there is a wide variety of public and private initiatives that aim at defining the principles and criteria to be used by European tourism stakeholders for ensuring the development and provision of quality tourism within the EU.
However, these quality systems often show little consistency and coordination as they usually focus on individual sectoral or territorial objectives without following a European integrated approach.
This fragmentation is a possible obstacle to achieving a EU level playing field for providing high-quality tourism service throughout Europe, which is likely to cause detriment to the competitiveness of the European tourism sector.
The objective of this public consultation is to obtain the views of a wide circle of public and private stakeholders and individuals on a possible EU action in this field.
As one of the possible actions, the Commission foresees the proposal for a European Tourism Label for Quality Systems, with a potential to bring greater transparency and consistency into quality evaluation at EU level.
The European label would recognise those existing and future tourism quality systems that comply with the common European criteria.
The results of this consultation will help us assess the impacts of the proposed initiative.
All interested parties are invited to express their views by answering the questionnaire.
Additionally, a consumer questionnaire will be available through this website towards the end of April 2012.
How to submit your contribution: All individuals and organisations are welcome to contribute to this consultation.
Received contributions will be published on the Internet.
Before taking part, please read the specific privacy statement attached to this consultation for information on how your personal data and contribution will be dealt with.
In the interest of transparency, organisations (including NGOs, trade associations, businesses, ...) are invited to provide the public with relevant information about themselves by registering in the Transparency Register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct.
- If you are already registered, please indicate the name and address of your organisation and your Register ID number on the first page of your contribution. Your contribution will then be considered as representing the views of your organisation.
- If your organisation is not registered, you can register now.
Then return to this page to submit your contribution as a Registered organisation. - Responses from organisations not registered will be published separately.
The Commission asks organisations who wish to submit comments in the context of public consultations to provide the Commission and the public at large with information about whom and what they represent.
If an organisation decides not to provide this information, it is the Commission's stated policy to list the contribution as part of the individual contributions. (Consultation Standards, see COM (2002) 704, and Communication on ETI Follow-up, see COM (2007) 127 of 21/03/2007).
Respondents, who do not wish to have their name indicated on the website should explicitly and clearly state so in their response.
In this case their contribution will be published as an anonymous response and all direct reference to their identity will be erased from the document.
Source: European Commission
view the Consultation Document below
view the questionnaire
The questionnaire is available in English
Contact details
Responsible service: DG Enterprise and Industry, Unit F/1: Tourism Policy Development
e-Mail: entr-tourism-consultation@ec.europa.eu
Postal address: European Commission, B100 04/004, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium
e-Mail: entr-tourism-consultation@ec.europa.eu
Postal address: European Commission, B100 04/004, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium
For additional information,
please visit the website of the European Commission
