Greece’s wildfires have actually damaged the landscape and taken their toll on the human population, however they have actually likewise been a catastrophe for animals – and animal charities are on the frontline of the scorched environments.
Organisations working to secure both wildlife and domestic animals have actually needed to work round the clock to attempt and rescue those captured up in the blazes.
Gregory Markakis, a veterinarian working for Athens-based wildlife charity Anima, remains in Rhodes as part of a group with 2 volunteers establishing a pop-up centre for the island’s animals.
He informed i: “It is really hot here and it’s very challenging but we have got used to it.
“We have been going round to the areas where the fires have been burning a few days before to try and find any animals which have been hurt.
“Now here in Rhodes, we have made a first aid station and we have informed people here when they find wild animals bring them here so we can give them first aid.”
Mr Markakis, who has actually been with Anima considering that 2019, said the frontline groups gather and treat the animals any place the fires have actually happened.
He was formerly operating in the Attica area of mainland Greece, where he said reptiles such as tortoises were frequently the most susceptible to the blazes.
“We have collected a lot of tortoises, snakes, lizards and hedgehogs,” he said. “Tortoises, and reptiles in general, are vulnerable because they are in contact with the terrain which is hot and they don’t move very fast.
“Birds fly and animals run from the fire.
“But tortoises are the main animal victims we get from fire, and chicks left in nests.”
Burns and fractures are the most typical injuries as the animals attempt to leave.
Initially dealt with at the emergency treatment stations, they are then sent to the Anima animal healthcare facility in Athens to fix up prior to being launched back into the wild.
Contuining the difficult however crucial work counts on contributions and the help of volunteers.
Serafina Avramidou is animal well-being supervisor for the charity Animal Action Greece based in Athens, which supports the work of Anima and canine charity Dogs’ Voice.
Animal Action Greece has actually supplied financing and resources from its contributions for both charities to perform fieldwork, consisting of supplying cages for gathering the animals, and supplying medical products and screening sets.
Ms Avramidou said: “We collaborate with these different organisations and try to support the work they are doing.”
She said Dogs’ Voice established a pop-up shelter in Athens from 17 to 24 July for dogs and cats that had actually been rescued from the fires, either with injuries or having actually ended up being disorientated and lost.
“They had dogs and cats which had inhaled smoke and also animals which were in a bad conditions because they had been living as strays,” she said. “Many people leave their homes (in the wildfires) and they leave their animals behind, some tied up.
“They can die if they are left tied up because they can’t run away from the fire.”
During one week at the Athens shelter, volunteers dealt with 444 cats and dogs and one parrot.
“I think this year there was the highest number of animals treated in one week there has been for the last three years,” Ms Avramidou said.
All the animals have actually considering that been gone back to their owners or sent to foster households.
Marsha Dimopoulou, head of the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Companion Animals, at Greece’s Ministry of the Interior, said: “We have had a very bad 10 days because of the fires.”
Her department is the very first port of call for numerous pleas for help when animal victims of the fires are discovered.
Aside from animal saves around Athens, she said they had actually lost a great deal of sheep to the fires in the main location of Volos, and secured deer in Rhodes.
European fallow deer (latin name Dama dama) are traditionally belonging to Rhodes and have actually secured status. Ms Dimopoulou said “many of them lost their lives in Rhodes” as an outcome of the fires.
She said wildfires are an inevitability in Greece each summertime and are something “you can’t know when they will start or how long they will last”.
But there is some expect the future, she included, as brand-new laws are being presented in Greece to enhance the running of animal shelters.
“We are hoping for the best and doing the best we can,” she said.
