More coming soon - excuse us if this site is not up tp date. We are channeling all of our resources and efforts into driving systematic change in Greece to end pet homelessness and may be behind updating this page. You can also visit our academy site on www.zerostrayacademy.gr

2022

November - The municipality of Pylis organizes a responsible pet ownership education workshop

The Municipality of Pylis is one of the 76 municipalities that graduated from the 5-week intensive education program from Zero Stray Academy (status Nov 22). Part of our program is to educate citizens about responsible pet ownership. And we are proud when municipalities action on that. The municipality of Pylis worked with our account manager and organized a two-day event educating about responsible pet ownership in collaboration with Katerina Papapostolou - one of our Academy subject matter experts around education and professors.

October - Our Marathon subsidy program comes to an end, 376 owned dogs microchipped and 461 owned dogs neutered

Since 2021, we helped the municipality of Marathon to microchip 376 owned dogs and neuter 461 owned dogs through funding low cost microchipping and neutering procedures, kindly funded by Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. 376 dogs who will never get abandoned and 461 dogs who will never produce unwanted litters. While more must be done, we are proud that our involvement helped to save thousands of puppies from being abandoned and ending up on the street. We also funded posters that educate about responsible pet ownership and that were put up by the municipality to educate citizens.

October - Announcement extended Academy Classes and focus on Mental Health for shelter staff

On #worldmentalhealthday , we are proud to announce that Zero Stray Academy will expand its education program in ‘23-25 and will soon be offering an extensive shelter training aimed at municipal shelters to improve current conditions which are, in some instances, dire.

How to manage burnout will be something that will be covered during that course. Why is this important? Current predictions indicate that by 2030 depression and other forms of mental health diseases will be the leading cause of disease burden globally. Shelter workers feel the burden of caring for sick and often, sadly, abused animals. Working day in and day out in such an environment can be difficult for the shelter staff’ mental health and burnout can occur, if not managed well. Mental health affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress and make healthy choices.

To drive change in municipal shelters in Greece, it also requires improving shelter staff’s mental well-being. We are proud to be able to offer such a class as first-of-its-kind in Greece in due course.

October - Major changes in the Hellenic Police supported by Zero Stray Pawject

At Zero Stray Pawject and Zero Stray Academy, our commitment to reducing the number of stray and homeless dogs and cats in Greece is more important than ever before.

🤝 In 01/22, our founders and Academy Director met the Minister of Civil Protection, who oversees all of Greece's police, and introduced a plan to improve public order and quality of life for pets and people.

✍️ In 05/22, Zero Stray Pawject, Inc signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Minister of Civil Protection, Takis Theodorikakos.

👮‍♂️ Soon after, the department for the Protection of Animals was created in the Hellenic Police Department.

🐈 From today onwards, there will be a five digit number 10410 for every Greek citizen and tourist to anonymously report animal abuse in Greece. This complaint department was newly created within the Hellenic Police. An important move to change the procedure how complaints are made – a large majority of cases was never reported due to fear. The five digit number allows those who often fear repercussions to report animal abuse anonymously, which enables the police to investigate. Reports can also be made via email to genast@astynomia.gr

🎓 Over the next months, we will start training ALL of the Hellenic Police officers to apply the new companion animal welfare legislation 4830/2021. ALL of Greece’s police will be trained according to what the new companion animal welfare legislation prescribes the police's responsibilities are, what role the police plays to enforce responsible pet ownership, such as microchip controls of owned dogs and cats, how to handle animal abuse and more. This is groundbreaking, as this is the first time that a private institution Zero Stray Academy cooperates with law enforcement to train all of a country’s police officers. An important move, as most of the police have never been trained about animal welfare laws.

🧩 One of the missing pieces of the puzzle was that the police were NOT equipped with chip scanners and could not carry out microchip controls. In the past Zero Stray Pawject, Inc donated microchip scanners to individual police stations. We are therefore more than happy to announce that the Hellenic Police allocated more than 250 microchip scanners across Police stations in Greece to serve the 332 municipalities. A very important step to prevent abandonment, the primary root-cause of stray dogs and cats in Greece and promote responsible pet ownership.

September - EURONEWS features Zero Stray Pawject

Thank you Euronews for featuring Zero Stray Pawject Inc on their Friday ‘Good News’ segment. https://lnkd.in/dUFvYefv

July - Consolidated wildfire response and Disaster Management

Severe heat and drought fuel wildfires, conditions scientists have linked to climate change. Sadly, Greece experiences wildfires every year.

In July, Zero Stray Pawject and Zero Stray Academy’s professors Dimitris Grammatikakis and Alexis Mantzoros from Alma Libre – Hellenic Animal Rescue and the police psychologist Vangelis Drivas came together with a leading rescue stray.gr and the special secretary of the Ministry of Interior Marsha Dimopoulou
to lead the disaster management response for Greece’s wildfires. Many animals were able to be saved and reunited with their owners. Animals that were left behind were able to be given for adoption. We are proud to have contributed to the wildfire response and are planning more systematic prevention in the coming years.

July - 53 municipalities graduated from Stray Academy in its first academic year since establishment

In its first academic year since its establishment in September ‘21, 53 municipalities successfully graduated from Zero Stray Academy. In total, 56 municipalities were trained, but to graduate, at least one municipal employee had to actively participate in ALL classes.  Our account managers afterwards worked with municipalities to implement the learnings. As a result, many started to implement new programs such as census studies to understand the problem, neutering programs for strays, microchip and neutering subsidies for owned pets, town halls to inform the public about responsible pet ownership, collaboration with the Hellenic police to start checks, and much more. We impacted 1,726,407 people and 451,458 dogs and cats and are proud of the change we are contributing to.

July - First In-Person Team meeting with extended Team in Athens

Zero Stray Pawject ensures to have the best and brightest minds working together on a common goal of reducing the number of stray dogs to zero and halving the number of stray cats in Greece by 2030. Our teams consists of the best and most collaborative experts in public policy, governmental affairs, the veterinary industry, management consulting, the petcare industry and animal welfare across Greece and worldwide. As those minds are not always easy to find in one location and given today's age of digital communication, Zero Stray Pawject chooses a virtual and flexible way of working.

However, nothing can beat a face-to-face meeting. Last week, our core Zero Stray Pawject and Zero Stray Academy came together in-person in Athens and discussed our plans for 2022-2025 to make an even bigger impact on people and pets in Greece.

The power of #togetherwecanmakeadifference is essential in everything we do.

June - Appointment of Marsha Dimopoulou , professor of Zero Stray Academy, as Special Secretariat for the Protection of Companion Animals at the Ministry of Interior

We are thrilled to announce that Marsha Dimopoulou, animal rights lawyer and professor of Zero Stray Academy was just announced as the Head of the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Companion Animals in the Ministry of Interior, on the initiative of the Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The purpose of this new position created is to monitor the implementation of the new companion animal welfare legislation 4830/2021. Greece has one of the best companion animal welfare legislations worldwide and we cannot be more thrilled that Marsha will work to get it done. Zero Stray Pawject Inc and Zero Stray Academy will continue training all of Greece’s 332 municipalities over the next years and with the recent signage of the MoU with the minister of civil protection, Zero Stray Academy will help to train all of the Hellenic police about the new legislation.

We want to congratulate Marsha and cannot think of a better person for this job. The day of a Greece without stray and homeless companion animals is moving closer.

May - *** Breaking News: Zero Stray Pawject signed an MoU with the Minister of Civil Protection to support training all of the Hellenic Police ***

In our January meeting with the Minister of Civil Protection Takis Theodorikakos, we suggested several things, among others for Zero Stray Academy (ZSA) to help train the Hellenic Police about animal welfare related matters of the new companion animal welfare legislation, such as obligations of the new law, animal abuse, procedures, and more. Since that meeting, we have coordinated with the right set of professors of our ZSA faculty to develop and propose the curriculum to the Hellenic Police Training Unit.

Fast forward, on May 20th, we signed an MoU with the minister of Civil Protection Takis Theodorikakos to train all of the Hellenic police with the help of our Zero Stray Academy professors and Zero Stray Pawject faculty. This is the first time EVER in Greece that a private entity such as Zero Stray Pawject and Zero Stray Academy support the training of the Hellenic Police over the course of the next few years!

We are humbled and proud that the Hellenic Police of Greece and Zero Stray Pawject and Zero Stray Academy are partnering to drive systematic and sustainable change in Greece. Together, we will create a better future for pets and people in Greece!

Read the Minister’s Social Media Announcement here.

May - Collaboration with Athens Municipality on a 2-day Training Event about responsible pet ownership

The municipality of Athens in collaboration with Zero Stray Pawject organized a 2 day-event at which key speakers who are also professors of Zero Stray Academy (Vangelis Drivas, Marsha Dimapoulou and others) spoke about responsible pet ownership. Read more here

You can also watch the recording here.

May - proposal submitted and accepted to implement a special department within the police

Zero Stray Academy and our professor Nikos Chryssakis submitted a proposal to the Minister of Civil Protection Τάκης Θεοδωρικάκος - Takis Theodorikakos to establish the animal protection department at Ελληνική Αστυνομία. This new department will deal with animal abuse and the implementation of the new companion animal welfare legislation that came into effect in 2021.

Read more here

April - wheel chairs donated to the Heraklion municipal shelter, kindly sponsored by Plus 2 Feet

The founder of Plus 2 Feet is one of our Zero Stray Academy professors. He kindly donated wheel chairs to the handicapped dogs at the municipal shelter of Heraklion, Crete, a municipality that recently graduated from Zero Stray Academy. Read more here

April - Hills Pet Food actively supports our work in Sparta

Hills pet food kindly donated 2 tons of pet food to the Sparta shelter and the work our academy director has been leading to reinstate the municipal shelter to be a functioning shelter. 90 bags of 12kg Hill's i/d (special clinical food for sick animals), 30 bags of Hill's Science Plan at each 14kg, and 36 bags of Mera Pure Sensitive 12.5kg. A total of 2 tons of food and a value of more than 11,000 euros. Thank you very much for such a great help to the the dogs of the Sparta municipal shelter.

March - Our founder is invited to speak at the the fourth international animal welfare conference

Over the past years, Zero Stray Pawject has gained international recognition for its unique approach how to reduce the number of stray dogs and cats. Our Zero Stray model shifts the focus towards prevention. We collaborate with municipalities and other key decision-making stakeholders to intervene BEFORE a dog or cat ends up on the street by eradicating abandonment and reducing overpopulation. Every stray pet was once someone’s pet, or the puppy or kitten of someone’s pet. Stray don’t grow on trees. We work with municipalities to set up municipal pet registries, we promote and subsidize microchipping and neutering of owned pets for families who cannot afford, we work in close collaboration with the police for the police to carry out controls and issue fines to irresponsible owners, which avoids abandonment, we work on education and much more. Lately we started training municipalities with the help of the best subject matter experts in Greece.

Our approach sparked interest from international animal welfare organizations. We even received requests to roll out to Romania, Moldovia, and Italy.

To this end, our founder Silja Schiller-Moumtzidis was invited to speak at several international conferences over the past 2 years. Thanks to HASS, The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and United Spay Alliance for giving us the opportunity to share our learnings and work all together to create a better world for pets.

March - Graduating Municipality of Heraklion carried out responsible pet ownership event

After graduating from Zero Stray Academy, the municipality of Heraklion created a new website that informs citizens about responsible pet ownership. https://lnkd.in/eyjttDAT. In addition, they held a virtual town hall meeting with its constituents to (i) discuss responsible pet ownership, (i) explain how citizens can qualify for municipal subsidies for low-cost/ free vet services for their pets, and (i) inform them about the new law that as of March 2022 has a requirement to either neuter or provide a DNA sample. Our ZSA director and three of ZSA professors were invited to speak at the townhall and interacted directly with the public to answer questions and concerns. The town hall event was extremely well received. https://lnkd.in/eusrcwMe.

More is planned.

February – Animal Welfare including Zero Stray Pawject rally to save 400+ dogs from the Sparta municipal shelter

Save a Greek Stray, a Greek rescue and rehoming organization filed a law suit under the guidance of the lawyer Kostis Tokadlides, who was also a professor at the academy at the time. On February 21st a court order was issued by the DA. The following day, on the 22nd, the Save a Greek stray rescuers together with local volunteers, the police and state veterinarians were able to enter the premise.

What they found is something no animal should ever experience… dead, dying, starving and diseased dogs in filthy conditions, with no space, or access to food or water. The court order led to the Deputy Mayor and 2 shelter managers being arrested for animal cruelty, and the padlocks of the shelter being unlocked for rescuers to intervene for the first time. 44 of the sickest dogs who required urgent attention were transported to Athens immediately where they were treated at veterinary clinic supported by Save a Greek Stray.

Zero Stray Pawject, Strays Sparta Greece and other organizations rallied afterwards to all come together and to provide supplies, transport remaining dogs to vets, and clean the shelter. Zero Stray Pawject sent their Director, Stamatina Stamatakou, to lead the project together with local organizations, providing veterinary care (life saving treatment for most dogs, as well as sterilization, vaccinations, deworming, etc) and improving the shelter conditions, with the help of vet, Nefeli-Sotiria Sinou, and two veterinary nurses. Zero Stray Pawject, Strays Sparta Greece and local volunteers were there helping with the huge ‘clean up’ job and have and were aiding with the rehoming of the 400+ dogs there.

The Prime Ministers office also provided urgently needed funds. The result is that the Sparta shelter is the first municipality shelter that was turned around from a death camp to a functioning shelter. More must be done, but this is a good case study that when organizations rally together, change can happen.

Read more on iefimerida here.

February – we welcome our two new account managers

In February, we welcome our first two Zero Stray Academy Account Managers Labrini Vergou and Heleanna Tzitzi. Zero Stray Academy is the vehicle to roll out the “Aegina model” across Greece and build on our knowledge that we accumulated in Aegina and unite the best subject matter experts across Greece. Zero Stray Academy also expands now to cats. Our account managers work hand in hand with graduating municipalities as their extended arm and help them to execute.

February - As of January every graduating municipality from Zero Stray Academy receives a trophy

Every graduating municipality receives a trophy and certificate for successful graduation from Zero Stray Academy. These trophies are always well received by municipalities! Most love to display the trophies in the public eye. The trophy signifies successful graduation from our 5-week basic municipal training. For content, click here. After graduation, our account managers support municipalities in the implementation space. Making 5 weeks available to attend every of our 22+ classes shows a certain interest into that matter. However, municipalities will later be evaluated how they implemented the learnings and the trophy does not stand for successful implementation.

January - Zero Stray Pawject financially supports a law suit for an extreme abuse/ death case in Arta

In December, our team was made aware of an extreme abuse case in Arta where the dog sadly eventually died from the consequences of the injury that were inflicted on him. The conditions of the dog were documented on social media. ZSP got involved, however sadly procedures that are required by the new legislation were not followed by local authorities. While Zero Stray Pawject and Zero Stray Academy works WITH local authorities, we believe everybody must follow the law. Our team afterwards liaised with Takis Theodorikakos to ensure the right procedure will be followed, at least in the aftermath. A law suit was filed by Marsha Diamopoulou who is an animal rights lawyer and professor of Zero Stray Academy and the local animal welfare. Zero Stray Pawject supported this action financially. Since, the municipality of Arta has re-entered our ZSA training course.

January - Our founders and academy director meet with the Minister of Civil Protection

In early January, our founders Silja Schiller-Moumtzidis and Theo Moumtzidis and ZSA Academy director Stamatina Stamatakou met with the minister of Civil Protection Takis Theodorikakos who oversees the Greek Police. During our meeting, we provided suggestions to improve Animal Protection and since worked with the Department.

We are thrilled to announce that in late March of ‘22, a presidential Decree was issued by the Minister’s office to create an Animal Protection Department in the Greek Police, which followed one of our proposals we suggested to the minister in our January meeting. We put together a proposal in collaboration with our Zero Stray Academy professors Mr. Nikolaos Chrysakis (Deputy Chief of the Police Heraklion, Crete and Author of the famous book “the legal status of animals in the Greek legal order”) and Angeliki Kourmousis (Police).

More is planned in the coming months, so watch this space!

We are happy that Zero Stray Pawject and Zero Stray Academy are able to contribute to improving animal welfare in Greece and drive systematic change.

Access the Minister’s official announcement on social media here.

2021

December - Zero Stray Academy trained 25 municipalities within 4 months

By end of December, Zero Stray Academy trained 25 municipalities how to reduce the number of strays systematically and sustainably. The Training takes place in a 5 week intensive training course and 21 seminars. Demand from municipalities is so big that we all training course are booked out until April 2022. It shows that we are on the right path to achieve zero stray companion animals in Greece.

December - Zero Stray Academy has a new logo

Zero Stray Academy has a new logo, which represents all pets, cats and dogs. Zero Stray Academy aims to reduce stray companion animals systematically and the logo embeds our shift to focus on ALL companion animals.

December - Over 250 owned dogs were neutered in Aegina, preventing thousands of often unwanted puppies

Zero Stray Pawject in collaboration with the municipality of Aegina, and three of the five private veterinarians on the island of Aegina neutered over 250 owned dogs until December 2021. ZSP subsidized neutering procedures and owners only paid 15 EUR for a male, instead of 80-200 EUR and 20 EUR for a female dog, instead of 100-260 EUR. The rest was subsidized. This initiative was sponsored through Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and the Bodossaki Foundation. It prevents thousands of unborn puppies who often end up unwanted and stray and alleviates the cost and worry for owners. It reduces strays systematically. A major achievement.

November - Zero Stray Academy signed up 25 of the best subject matter experts to serve as ZS Academy

“Change is the end result of all true learning”. By November, ZS Academy managed to engage 25 of the best subject matter experts across Greece to be part of ZS Academy. Read more here

November - Hills Pet Nutrition and Zero Stray Pawject promote responsible dog ownership together

Hills launched a social media campaign promoting responsible pet ownership and partnered with Zero Stray Pawject to co-promote some of our infographics that ZSP created.

September - Launch of Zero Stray Academy with 5 municipalities

In September, we launched our first pilot with 5 municipalities. "Zero Stray Academy", the first online academy that supports and teaches municipalities across Greece how to systematically reduce the number of strays. 20 of the best subject matter experts across Greece serve as professors and help teach an immense amount of knowledge to municipalities for free. Incredible experts including high ranking police officers specialized in animal abuse, the best lawyers (supreme court), municipal leaders, shelter and animal welfare leaders, leading politicians, the head of the mayor union across Greece, leading veterinarians across Greece and many more. We are planning more courses over the next year and will also invite municipalities back to learn how they applied this knowledge. Zero Stray Academy is almost entirely funded by Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, a small part is financed through donations. Zero Stray Academy does not receive any government funding. Zero Stray Academy drives real change. It packages our knowledge working with municipalities over the past 5 years of systematically reducing the number of stray dogs and combines it with leading experts to build a robust knowledge bank for dogs and cats. Zero Stray Academy is free for all municipalities and our subject matter experts. professors provide their time free of charge to drive real systematic change across Greece. For more information, please visit www.zerostrayacademy.gr

September - Progress meeting in Marathon with the municipality

Our team met with the municipality of Marathon, mayor Stergios Tsirkas, Deputy Mayor of the Municipal Police Mr. Nikiforos Batze, the Director of Local Economic Development Mrs. Eleftherias Hatzigavriil and the Head of the Department of Agricultural Production & Fisheries Mrs. Sofia Bastardi. We discussed the progress of our prevention program to reduce overpopulation and abandonment through our systematic microchipping and spay/ neutering program of owned dogs, which is possible thanks to funding from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Zero Stray Pawject provides tools for the municipality to set up a municipal registry and collect the data of owners and their dogs as the Greek animal welfare mandates. To date over 350 owned dogs and their owner took advantage of almost free microchipping and almost free spay/ neuter, reducing overpopulation and abandinment. Click here to see the press announcement from the municipality.

August - Aegina is close to achieving zero stray dogs with an estimated 30 stray dogs left (vs 200 in 2018)

In September, our ZSP team met with the municipality of Aegina, mayor Giannis Zorbas and director of public health Sofia Hatzina. We discussed the progress of our program to reduce the number of stray dogs systematically. Zero Stray Pawject has been subsidizing low cost microchipping and neutering procedures for over 800 owners who cannot afford it or needed more understanding about the benefits of neutering their dog. The local police was the first police force across Greece that started going from door to door and check whether owners had microchipped and keep their dogs according to animal welfare standards. The two shelters have done a great job taking in dogs, sometimes the most abused ones. The five local veterinarians took part in our program. The local school carried out education classes in collaboration with Zero Stray Pawject and SPAZ. Local volunteers and the municipality confirmed that the number of stray dogs has reduced significantly since we started in 2018 from 200 stray dogs to an estimated 30 stray dogs in 2021, which improved quality of life for residents, dogs and tourists. This could only be achieved through addressing the root-cause, which is abandonment and overpopulation and offer subsidies to those owners who cannot afford.

We are close to achieving our goal of zero stray dogs in Aegina which is a massive achievement in our journey of achieving zero strays.

August - Greece passes a new companion animal welfare legislation

In late August Greece launched a new Companion Animal Welfare Law 4830 under the code name “Argos”. Its objective is to improve animal welfare across Greece, facilitate the work of shelters and focus on responsible pet ownership. The new legislation legislates that pets must be kept according to the universally accepted “The Five Freedoms”. It has a National Registry of all owned as well as stray pets, a nationwide adoption platform where all strays in the Registry are showcased, and registries of all animal welfare organizations, breeders, shelters, and blood donors. Pets will have a digital medical record (including all laboratory results and the pet’s DNA) stored centrally and accessible by any veterinarian and the owner. The obligation for pet owners to either neuter their animals by the age of 1 or have a vet take a DNA sample of their pet, that will be sent to a Greek genetics’ laboratory, with the primary objective that an abandoned pet (mostly puppies and kitten, since the microchip is not hereditary) can be traced back to its owner who will then face criminal charges. A five-digit number to anonymously report animal abuse to the police, and a website where video and photo evidence of abuse can be uploaded. Incentives and annual plans to municipalities for providing preventative programs (chipping, neutering), low-income families will be given free chipping and neutering services. The list goes on, read more here. You can download the new legislation here.

August - Stamatina Stamatou joins Zero Stray Academy as Academy Director

Stamatina Stamatou who worked for the TV station Skai as animal reporter for many years joins Zero Stray Pawject to lead the set up and running of Zero Stray Academy as Academy Director. Her role will involve setting up the academy, recruiting the right subject matter experts, set up the portal and launch the academy.

July - Grant awarded to start Zero Stray Academy

ZERO STRAY PAWJECT AWARDED SPECIAL GRANT FROM BATTERSEA DOGS & CATS HOME

Zero Stray Pawject Inc has been awarded a special grant from one of the UK’s leading animal welfare charities, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in London. The funds granted by Battersea will support building the Zero Stray Pawject Academy and enable municipalities to receive actionable training on how to reduce / eliminate the stray pet situation in their community in a systemic way. Silja Schiller-Moumtzidis, Co-Founder and CEO of Zero Stray Pawject, Inc said “the support of Battersea is vital to meet the demand of municipalities to build an academy with experts from across all of Greece and abroad to help solve the problem of strays and provide the right level of expertise to them. Thanks to Battersea’s funding, we can offer this service to municipalities for free”. Margaret Hulme, Grants Manager at Battersea added: “We hope that this grant will help make a real difference to the lives of animals. At Battersea we want to support animal welfare organizations, rescues, and shelters, not only by awarding funding, but also by sharing the experiences and knowledge we have gained as an animal welfare charity that has been rescuing and rehoming animals for 160 years.”

Battersea Grants is an initiative launched in 2019 that aims to support smaller animal welfare organizations by offering grants. This money will help organizations continue their great work around specific animal welfare programs.

January - June - High demand from municipalities

After the success in Aegina and our roll-out to Marathon and Santorini, Zero Stray Pawject received emails and calls from our 40 municipalities and animal welfare organizations across Greece to help them reduce the number of strays. During this time, ZSP served as an advisor to many municipalities explaining step by step how to systematically reduce the number of strays. However, to truly justify the demand and drive real change, the team of ZSP is working on a plan to roll out across Greece.

March - 25,000 brochures about responsible dog ownership are sent to all resident of Marathon

Zero Stray Pawject and the Municipality of Marathon partnered to send responsible dog ownership brochures to all citizens of Marathon, the fifth largest municipality across Greece. Zero Stray Pawject designed and Battersea funded the inserts that were designed to raise awareness of microchipping and neutering. These 25.000 brochures that were put into each household waterbill were sent to every of the 25,000 households through the municipal water authorities to ensure that every citizen of Marathon is informed through official municipal channels. The brochure did not only explain the benefits of why microchipping and neutering are important for each individual owned dog but also for society and it explained that a large grant is available to ensure that over 800 dogs will be able to benefit from almost free microchipping and neutering in 2021. This project is funded by Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and Zero Stray Pawject.

March - 360 Marketing Activation Campaign

Zero Stray Pawject and the Municipality embark on a 360 Marketing Campaign to promote responsible dog ownership including posters in official places all over the municipality, flyers, brochures and official announcements through the municipality, radio, and social media. The campaign also promotes low cost spay/ neuter and microchipping for owners who cannot afford, or owners who never wanted to neuter and microchip their dog.

March - Donation of 2,000 dog tags to the Municipality of Marathon

To recognize dogs who are registered in the municipal registry, Zero Stray Pawject designed, produced and funded 2,000 municipal dog tags that display each registered dogs unique Marathon dog registry number on the front with the words: "Municipality of Marathon”. The back side has the logo of Zero Stray Pawject engraved.

We are rolling out responsible dog ownership slowly across Greece.

February - Hills donates dog food worth €30,000 to Zero Stray Pawject

We want to thank Hill's Pet Nutrition for donating 20 Hills dog food pallets, worth € 30000, to Zero Stray Pawject!!! It's very generous and we are incredibly grateful to Hill for supporting our cause!! The municipalities of Aegina, Marathon, and Thira, each received 4 pallets, valued at € 6000 and the remaining foods were given to KEDE to share to other municipalities in need. Thanks to Hills for helping us reduce the stray dog population!!

January - Zero Stray Pawject donates 2,000 municipal dog tags to the municipality of Santorini

Zero Stray Pawject supports the municipality in their efforts to establish a system for tracking microchipping of owned dogs to stop abandonment. To this end, Zero Stray Pawject provides the tools and templates to the municipality to set up their own owned dog registry and donates 2,000 municipal dog tags to the municipality of Santorini in an effort to promote responsible dog ownership and to break the cycle of constant abandonment which is common in Santorini. The dog tags were designed in the color scheme of Santorini.

2020

December - Roll-out to Santorini

Zero Stray Pawject and the Municipality of Marathon signed a contract for Zero Stray Pawject to support their efforts reducing the number of stray dogs in Santorini. Zero Stray Pawject amplifies their current programs, supports them to set up a municipal registry and helps to educate residents about responsible dog ownership through the municipality. Different to Marathon and Aegina, Zero Stray Pawject does not fund any subsidy programs.

December - Roll-out to Marathon with help of Battersea

Zero Stray Pawject, Inc has today been awarded a special grant from one of the UK’s leading animal welfare charities, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in London. Following our successful program on the Greek island of Aegina to reduce the “production” of new stray dogs -- also in part funded by Battersea Dogs & Cats Home --, Battersea will support Zero Stray Pawject’s next roll-out: the world-renowned city of Marathon, will welcome the Zero Stray Pawject in early 2021. The grant will be primarily used to subsidize microchipping and/or neutering of owned dogs.  A smaller portion of the funds will be used to run awareness and education campaigns targeting owners who are either financially not able to chip & neuter or are negatively influenced by.

Silja Schiller-Moumtzidis, CEO and Co-Founder of Zero Stray Pawject, Inc said “every stray dog was once someone’s pet or the puppy of someone’s pet. The root-cause of stray dogs is a blend of irresponsible dog ownership, abandonment, and overpopulation. At Zero Stray Pawject we focus on reducing the “production of stray dogs” so that local animal welfare and municipalities can cope. We are thrilled that Battersea continues to be an amazing partner in helping us to fight pet homelessness and achieve zero stray dogs which ultimately makes communities a better place for people and dogs alike and protects high-end tourism.”

Margaret Hulme, Grants Manager at Battersea added: “We hope that this grant will help make a real difference to the lives of animals. At Battersea we want to support rescues and shelters, not only by awarding funding, but also by sharing the experiences and knowledge we have gained as an animal welfare charity that has been rescuing and rehoming animals for 160 years.”

Battersea Grants is an initiative launched in 2019 that aims to support smaller rescues and shelters by offering grants. This money will help organizations continue their great work with dogs and cats.

About Battersea Dogs & Cats Home: Battersea directly helps over 5,000 dogs and cats across its three centres and uses its expertise, influence, and voice to help thousands more animals all over the country and across the world. For further information on Battersea, please visit www.battersea.org.uk. Follow Battersea on Twitter @battersea_ or facebook.com/Battersea

Click here for the municipal announcement.

December - Creative Marketing Campaign at the port of Aegina to stop abandonment

Shortly before Christmas, abandonments reach a high level, Zero Stray Pawject and the Municipality of Aegina launched a new creative marketing campaign. A large outdoor banner was placed in the port of Aegina, informing visitors and residents that abandonment is a crime and punishable. High fines are issued thanks to the intensive work of the Hellenic Police, Forest Police and Coast Guard. The banner depicts an abandoned dog with the slogan "Did you forget something?". Saronic Ferries and Zoosos reported about our efforts.

If you want to look behind the scenes of how the photo was shot (spoiler alert, the founder’s dog Caprice was an amazing model :-) ), click here.

November - ZSP is featured on Vice

Vice produced a 45 minute documentary about our work and that of so many stakeholders. It portrays well how a whole community comes together to achieve zero stray dogs. It is incredibly well done and worthwhile watching! Watch it here. Click on cc and chose English subtitles.

November - ZSP is featured on ERT2

Tassoula Eptakili, a well-known ERT2 journalist dedicated the first 20 minutes of her new show to our work and why this is new and different, interviewing the ZSP founders, the mayor, vet and local animal lovers. Watch it here.

October/ November - ZSP raising awareness how to prevent animal abuse

During the month of October and November, ZSP has been running a social media campaign against animal abuse. Animal abuse happens daily, sometimes in front of our eyes (e.g., Hector thee white dog, who was stabbed to almost death in public by a professor in Athens during broad daylight), or behind the scenes (Aargyroula did not receive the same media attention. She was found abandoned, hung on a tree and starved to death) ZSP has been working behind the scenes on this matter for some time. In public, ZSP built infographics to raise awareness about the link between animal abuse, domestic violence nd other criminal acts, that need to be addressed through legislation changes.

We also wrote several thought leadership pieces to inspire change and drive a shift towards PREVENTION. While animal abuse is now classified as felony in Greece with up to 10 years prison sentence, which is a key milestone, we believe more has to be done to prevent abuse from happening

One of the pieces we wrote is the following:

How can we stop animal abuse? We are all tired of seeing one image after another of yet another dog being bused, tortured, or even killed. Today, the parliament in Greece will vote to make animal abuse a felony in Greece with up to 10 years prison sentence which is a great first step.

But is it enough ? The questions is, how can we PREVENT animal abuse from happening BEFORE it happens?

 One way is to increase penalties as voted for today, or train more DA’s and judges about how to issue the right penalties and the link between animal abuse, domestic abuse and other forms of criminal activities. Right now, there are 2-3 DA’s across Greece who have real animal welfare knowledge, something that needs to change. Or have the police to be trained to follow up and follow through on animal abuse allegations and all of this is important.

But we believe it starts with basics and ensure that we INCREASE THE PERCENT OF RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNERS across Greece and stop abandonment. And that starts with microchipping and registering of EVERY OWNED DOG across Greece. Most abuse happens in combination with abandonment and roaming strays. Strays are a vulnerable population. Once a dog is on the street, they easily fall victims to animal abusers. So how do we get the number of abuse down? By having less dogs ending up on the street!!! And that us only  possible if every owned dog is microchipped and registered, as dogs will then be traceable and owners who abandon and abuse will be punished.

Therefore, we advocate to microchip and register every owned dogs across Greece, which will ultimately reduce the production of ‘new strays’. The less strays there are, the more valuable a dog becomes.

September - ZSP collaborates with chiefs of police and coast guard to achieve zero stray dogs

In order to achieve zero stray dogs, it requires a societal change, driven by promoting and enforcing responsible dog ownership. Our Zero Stray Pawject Model does not only promote and subsidize basic veterinary care for owners who cannot afford, such as low cost microchipping and neutering through subsidizing, in some cases up to 95% of the actual cost for owners of low and middle income families who struggle to pay for microchipping and neutering their dogs, to avoid unwanted litter. But our model also puts strong focus on policing and working hand in hand with the local, regional and nationwide police to enforce responsible dog ownership and to penalize dog owners who don’t follow the law, who don’t microchip and register, and who even abandon or abuse.

We are therefore pleased to announce that in addition to the meeting with the local coast guard and police chief of Aegina at the end of August, our team also met the Director of the Piraeus Police Directorate, Brigadier General Kostazos, the Chief of the Greek Police Lieutenant General Karamanlakis and the Assistant Harbor Master of the Central Port Authority of Piraeus. Everybody sees the relevance of our zero stray Pawject model, why zero stray dogs will make communities a better place and we are happy that each and everyone is supporting us. Together with stronger policing we can drive real sustainable change in Greece and our Zero Stray Pawject team will continue to push forward to achieve zero stray dogs.

Read more

August - ZSP organizes a workshop with the police, coast guard and mayor to collaborate for an Aegina without strays

When all key stakeholders work together, good things happen.In late August, Zero Stay Pawject, the mayor Mr Giannis Zorbas and the director of public health Ms Sofia Hatzina, the police chief Mr Karagiannis and 2 of his officers, the lieutnant of the coast guard, deputy chief of staff Mr Vouniseas met in the mayor’s office to discuss achieve zero stray dogs in Aegina. Zero Stray Pawject presented the Zero Stray model that has been applied since 2018 in Aegina which focuses on preventing new strays from appearing g in the streets of Aegina by addressing the root-cause which is abandonment.

To reduce the number of newly abandoned dogs it is crucial to have every owned dog de-anonymized by chipping them.  Policing is very important and we are happy that the police started checks. The coast guard promised to start aggressive checks at the port. Caprice, the owner’s dog served as a model to demonstrate how to scan and check an owned dog and various methods to avoid police officers being bitten were discussed.

We are very happy with the outcome and are proud that all stakeholders came together to work for an Aegina without strays.

Read more

May - July - Zero Stray Pawject’s model gets a lot of media attention

Zero Stray Pawject is thrilled that our approach receives so much media attention across Greece. The Greek Reporter, Athens Voice, Zoosos, Zoon, The National Herald, Sky, iefimerida, and Athens Radio all reported how our pioneering efforts creates a sustainable reduction of stray dogs.

July - Zero Stray Pawject and the municipality of Aegina offers yet another round of subsidies.

This time ZSP and the municipality of Aegina offer a combined subsidy to all of Aegina residents to microchip + neuter their dog for a incredible low cost of 25 EUR for males and 30 EUR for females for medium and large dogs - this offer excludes small dogs. A combined microchipping and neutering procedure normally would cost between 120 EUR plus VAT and 280 EUR plus VAT. The offer is only valid for a short amount of time. A joint announcement was made on the Aegina website and on Aegina portal. Posters are hang up in key locations across Aegina.

June - Zero Stray Pawject is again in the News in Zoon.gr

Zero Stray Pawject was interviewed by Zoon.gr. Sofia Tzoniki, Secretary General of Zero Stray Pawject, Inc discussed how Zero Stay Pawject's new and unique approach provides a sustainable model to achieve zero stray dogs and talks about some groundbreaking ideas that Zero Stray Pawject is working on to end abandonment.

You can read more here:

June - AAPA and ZSP formal relationship expires as each organization focuses on their respective and complementary areas of expertise

Animal Protection Aegina and Agistri and Zero Stray Pawject officially ceased their collaboration on 10.06.2020. Both organizations continue to be active on their field of action and may collaborate again in the future, for animal protection and welfare causes. Zero Stray Pawject continues their efforts to achieve zero stray dogs in Aegina working hand in hand with the municipality of Aegina on preventing dogs from ending up on the street.

May -  Our success is recognized by the largest Greek American Newspaper “The National Herald”

The National Herald is the largest Greek American Newspaper. They recently recognized our successes and we thank them for sharing our story. Click here

May -  Milestone we hit 50% of all owned dogs being microchipped in Aegina

We reached a milestone with 50% of all owned dogs being microchipped in Aegina who can never be abandoned. This is the ONLY region across Greece that has 50% of all owned dogs microchipped. A 1000 owned dogs will never be abandoned and will never add to the stray dog population. Significant results of our model.

May -  Support of the Bodossaki Foundation for the second Neutering Program of owned dogs

We are pleased to announce the launch of the second Neutering Program of owned dogs in Aegina for 2020, in collaboration with the Municipality of Aegina and with the support of the Bodossaki Foundation. Zero Stray Pawject began a microchipping program for owned dogs in Aegina in early 2018, with the objective of creating a tool for drastically reducing the number of stray dogs in a systematic and sustainable way.

With this Neutering program, Zero Stray Pawject is bolstering its actions to promote a shift in behavior in Aegina and to create a model that can be transferred to other municipalities that also have a stray dog problem and would like to implement the Zero Stray Pawject model.

About The Bodossaki Foundation: https://www.bodossaki.gr/en/

May -  Launch of an Education Campaign on Social Media

As of May, we started a social media campaign to raise awareness of responsible dog ownership. To this end, we partner with a volunteer graphic designer Michelle Wu to create simple and state-of-the-art infographics that prevail in a simple manner why it is important, for example, to spay and neuter, or to microchip and much more. The first infographics were shared by various groups across Greece and were very successful. More inforgraphics are planned throughout the year. You can download and share some of them here or go to our Instagram or Facebook page. Please make sure to credit Zero Stray Pawject.

April - Sofia Tzoniki joins Zero Stray Pawject as Secretary General

We welcome Sofia Tzoniki to Zero Stray Pawject, as she takes the position of Secretary-General of Zero Stray Pawject in Greece.

Sofia has a 20 years track record, working for the protection of animals across Greece. From 2008 to 2019 she was the Secretary-General of the Panhellenic Animal Welfare Federation PFO. She is also the president of the Stray Animal Care & Protection Association, Stray.gr.

Sofia has started to assume certain responsibilities to drive forward our program to achieve zero stray dogs across Greece.

March - May -  Covid-19 Update

Earlier this year, the world saw the start of a deadly global pandemic, without anybody knowing when things will go back to normal. Greece went into lockdown as of mid of March until early May. During this time, we managed to raise enough funds to continue with our subsidized microchipping and subsidized neutering programs for owned dogs to help families who own a dog to pay for basic veterinary care , such as microchipping and neutering. This was possible thanks to our wonderful local vets who worked very carefully, ensuring the right safety procedures for covid-19. The fact that our programs were able to continue helps the community to ensure that less dogs end up on the street during a global crisis. Our team will continue to raise funds to ensure that throughout the year, we can help even more families who cannot afford basic veterinary care, such as neutering and chipping.

February -  10,500 water bill insert leaflets were sent to all Aegina citizens

Responsible dog ownership is important for achieving zero strays. That is why Zero Stray Pawject in collaboration with the mayor’s office designed and sent 10,500 water bill inserts to all Aegina citizens informing them about what responsible dog ownership means, what the law says and how the subsidy programs will help Aegina residents to stay compliant. Read more.

February -  Zero Stay Pawject builds a stray dog map

Zero Stray Pawject normally intervenes BEFORE a dog ends up on the street. But given that Aegina still has stray dogs, Zero Stray Pawject decided to build a stray dog map for the municipality and the whole community of Aegina. It is an interactive map on google maps. The mayor reached out to the community and asked for the community to participate and take photos and location and any information of any dog on the street, and send it to adespoto2020@gmail.com. This is a first step to proper stray dog management on the island of Aegina so that strays can be counted and ideally in a next step, taken off the street, neutered and either be taken in by one of the two local shelters/ sanctuaries or if they are full, then released back on the street. Zero Stray Pawject plans more actions here in the near future.

February -  Hellenic Police and Coast Guard start checks and issues warnings

Zero Stray Pawject has been lobbying for 2 years for the police and coast guard to accept the 8 microchip scanners that Zero Stray Pawject donated over the past 2 years and start with checks. Since February 17th 2020 we reached a milestone. For the first time ever, the Coast Guard controls ferries coming into Aegina whether dogs are microchipped and issue warnings to owners. For the fist time ever, the Hellenic Police control owners and their dogs all around Aegina whether their dogs are microchipped and registered and issue warnings for those owners who have not yet done it. Aegina is pioneering a new approach to drive responsible dog ownership, which also involves mandatory microchipping and registering as the Greek Law requires. As a result of this action, we saw 100+ owned dogs being microchipped and registered within 4 weeks.

2019

December -  Zero Stray Pawject Inc awarded Special Grant from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

Zero Stray Pawject, Inc., a US 501(c)3 and German e.V. non-profit has today been awarded a special grant from one of the UK’s leading animal welfare charities, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in London. The funds granted by Battersea will support Zero Stray Pawject’s work to subsidize neuterings of owned dogs on the island of Aegina, Greece and, in parallel, run targeted campaigns for owners who object to neutering their dogs. The promotion of neutering of owned dogs as a means to control dog overpopulation (relative to the community’s ability to “absorb” them as pets), is a key part of larger integrated program that has as an end-objective to make Aegina, Greece a sustainably “zero stray” dog community. Achieving “zero stray” status will make it the first municipality in Greece to do so. Zero Stray Pawject’s broader goal is to create an end-to-end integrated model that is replicable and can be rolled out by other municipalities in Greece or in other countries that struggle with hard to manage (if not unmanageable) numbers of stray dogs.

Silja Schiller-Moumtzidis, CEO of Zero Stray Pawect, Inc. said “We are thrilled that Battersea Dogs and Cats Home wants to support our effort to build a replicable local government-centred model to achieve zero stray dogs”.

Margaret Hulme, Grants Manager at Battersea added: “We hope that this grant will help make a real difference to the lives of animals. At Battersea we want to support rescues and shelters, not only by awarding funding, but also by sharing the experiences and knowledge we have gained as an animal welfare charity that has been rescuing and rehoming animals for 160 years.”

Battersea Grants is an initiative launched earlier this year that aims to support smaller rescues and shelters by offering grants of between £3,000 and £15,000. This money will help organisations continue their great work with dogs and cats.

About Battersea Dogs & Cats Home

· Battersea helps nearly 7,000 dogs and cats across its three centres in the UK and uses its expertise, influence, and voice to help thousands more animals all over the country and across the world. · For further information on Battersea, please visit www.battersea.org.uk.

· Follow Battersea on Twitter @battersea_ or facebook.com/Battersea

November  -  Round 2 of subsidized microchipping in Aegina thanks to WTG

Thanks to the support of Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V. (WTG), the municipality of Aegina and Zero Stray Pawject are offering a SECOND round of SUBSIDIZED MICROCHIPPING in Aegina, starting in November 2019.  This program is particularly important for families who cannot easily afford the cost of microchipping.   The program is executed in collaboration with all the local Aegina vets Despina, Giannis, Maria and Nektarios. To find out if you qualify for the subsidy, please contact Ms Sofia Hatzina at the municipality of Aegina on 2297 320054. If you are eligible, you will only pay 10 EUR (instead of 40 EUR plus VAT), to microchip your dog as the law requires.  Applicants will be served on a strict first-come, first-serve basis until the funds for the 200 subsidized chips are exhausted, but no later than March 2020.

This program is part of the joint effort of Zero Stray Pawject and the Municipality of Aegina to microchip all dogs who live on the island of Aegina.  A microchipped dog has a voice and is not anonymous anymore.  The chip traces the dog back to its owner.  A dog can no longer be abandoned without repercussions.  Microchipping and registering is required per laws 4039/2012 and 4235/2014; violators can be fined EUR 300.  Since September of 2019, the Hellenic Police, Forest Police and Coast Guard have started to perform checks in Aegina and Agistry to ensure dog owners comply with the law.

This second round of subsidized microchipping will allow more families who cannot easily afford the microchip to become responsible owners, comply with the law, and avoid a fine.

Be a responsible owner: microchip your dog, avoid the risk of a fine!

This initiative will help to create a culture of eponymous dogs. We are creating the largest municipal registry as the law requires which will serve as an example for other municipalities.  In Aegina we NO LONGER accept dogs with NO NAMES from residents, or visitors who think they can abandon their dogs on the island of Aegina.

General information about WTG

Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V. (WTG) is a Berlin/Germany based registered non-profit organisation. Their vision is a world, in which animals are appreciated by people, treated according to their needs and with respect. In their work for animal welfare WTG focuses on countries and regions with little protection for animals. They aim at improving the situation for animals in the long term i.e. by providing veterinary care, by supporting animal sanctuaries and through our educational work. WTG cooperates with local partner organizations and involves the people who are directly concerned.

October  -  Neutering “Trial” Program with owned dogs

In October, Zero Stray Pawject and the municipality of Aegina designed a neutering ‘trial’ program. Ms Hatzina called 50 randomly selected people in Aegina and offered them a neutering subsidy, funded by Zero Stray Pawject in collaboration with local vets in Aegina. We wanted to find out how important cost is in the decision making of whether to neuter a dog.

Over the last 1 1/2 years Zero Stray Pawject in partnership with the municipality of Aegina, specifically with Ms Sofia Hatzina, Director of public health, has invested funds and resources into finding out why dog owners don’t neuter their dogs. This was done on individual dog-owner level. We now have collected over 400 answers, statistically a very large and robust sample to build targeted programs.

Neutering is not mandatory per Greek law, but promoting neutering of owned dogs prevents unwanted litters from ending up on the street. Greece has a huge overpopulation of dogs, resulting into numerous dogs roaming the streets. Every dog who has a litter and whose puppies cannot find a home adds to the stray dog overpopulation crisis.

It became obvious that after costs, a large majority of dog owners are not clear about the benefits of neutering or have misconceptions. 

You will soon hear more about this important initiative.

September  -  We got our first two handicapped dogs adopted

Elpida, Greek for Hope was found abandoned and hit by a car in August 2018. The Municipality who is responsible for stray dogs scheduled Elipida to be euthanized since she cannot be put back on the street. Seirios, a rescue in Thessaloniki who works with the multiplicity was desperate to find a solution for her. All their attempts to find Elpida with a home locally had failed. In desperation, they reached out to us as a last resort to see if we could bring her to New York. It took us 6 months from the initial meeting until we managed to find a suitable foster for her. In May 2019, Elpida got officially adopted by her foster parents and now lives happily ever after in New Jersey. Without our efforts, Elpida would not have survived. Alfredo, a hound who was dumped in a garbage and hit by a car, paralyzed and lost his ear, had waited in Greece for a home for over 4 years. He was rescued and looked after by G.A.F., Greek Animal Welfare in Galatsi. But despite of many attempts to find him a home locally, he never did. Zero Stray Pawject helped to bring Alfredo over to New York for G.A.F. after a family was found in Buffalo and vetted for 6 months who wanted to adopt Alfredo despite of his handicap and ongoing medication needs. We organized his foster and agreed to bring him upstate. Sadly two days before he was meant to travel, his adopters dropped out. Within a few weeks of in-depth social media outreach and selective marketing efforts, we found his new family who adopted him in September in New Jersey. His new mom works with disabled children and plans to bring Alfredo along to inspire children with disabilities. He has been a role model for many over years. Both Elpida and Alfredo would have not been able to find a home without the efforts of our dedicated team at Zero Stray Pawject.

Adopting a handicapped dog is a pretty difficult mission because finding the right family for each of those special needs dogs is not easy. We will continue helping dogs who have no one else to turn to.

July  -  Tony Miele, leading voice in the U.S. veterinary world decides to support us

We are thrilled to announce that Tony Miele decided to support Zero Stray Pawject as independent veterinary consultant. Tony is a leading voice in the U.S. veterinary world, with offices in Staten Island and Brooklyn and over 20 years of experiences having worked in Italy, Brazil and in the US. Tony is an expert on Mediterranean predispositions. Families that decide to adopt a dog with a particular predisposition through Zero Stray Pawject from Greece, which US vets are often just not as knowledgeable about, now have the advantage to benefit from local expertise. This is part of our promise to be there every step of the way, long after the dog was adopted.

Adoptions is only a very small part of what Zero Stray Pawject does. ZSP mostly drives public policy initiatives to solve the problem of stray dogs INSIDE of Greece, for example the work we do in Aegina with the municipality, or broader nationwide public policy work. We only carry out a handful of adoptions per year as it is a) not systematic and b) it costs a fortune to bring a dog from Greece to the US.

BUT for some of those dogs who have ZERO chance of EVER getting adopted, who waited for years behind bars, or are even at risk of certain death because they just cannot find a home locally, Zero Stray Pawject is their only chance of finding a loving home and we must help them.

With Tony on board, we now have one of the best vets and experts on the east Coast joining our efforts!

May  -  First ever education workshop in Aegina’s high school and elementary school

Phase III of our zero stray dog model in Aegina started on May 10th. Zero Stray Pawject in collaboration with the municipality of Aegina Mrs Sofia Hatzina director of Public health invited Nikki Claios from SPAZ to give two presentations about dog welfare to students at the 1st Dimotiko and the Gymnasio in Aegina town. The SPAZ education program is funded by Dogs Trust. A total of 260 enthusiastic students took part in that program and played a very active role in asking questions, taking part in role plays and learning.

The program compromised not only responsible dog ownership, but also addressed how to approach a stray dog to avoid an accident and why it is important to pick up poop. The importance of microchipping and registering was explained and common myths were addressed, for example that a microchip is NOT a GPS tracker.

The dog tag that the municipality of Aegina in collaboration with Zero Stray Pawject created, funded by Zero Stray Pawject and the Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V. was shown and well received

Aegina is the first municipality in Greece who has a comprehensive and first-of-its-kind program to address the problem of stray dogs in a systematic way. From the first ever enhanced municipal dog registry that was set up in Aegina and encouraging microchipping through the lottery, subsidizing microchipping in order to give dogs a voice, over to promoting neutering and education.

We hope to be able to have more of those invaluable education workshops in the near future in Aegina, especially with children and teens as they are our future, in order to continue our path to achieve zero stray dogs in Aegina

May 25  -  Update, we made our target of 185 new dogs being microchipped and registered thanks to the subsidy within only 3 months

We are happy to announce that after only 3 months we achieved our goal of 185 registrations eligible to the microchip subsidy program, which is funded by Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V. and Zero Stray Pawject in collaboration with the local vets.

Everybody who chipped and registered their dog receive a municipal dog tag. To inform every citizien of this initiative, 6,000 flyers were sent through the municipality in the water bill to every household in Aegina in March 2019.

The initiative is led by Zero Stray Pawject in collaboration with the municipality of Aegina Mrs. Sofia Hatzina Director of Public Health and funded by Zero Stray Pawject and Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V.

This is an incredible result in such a short amount of time and we urge everyone to finalize microchipping and registering your dog before June 10th and to bring back the microchip certificate to the DEMOS not later than June 10th to not miss out on the subsidy program.

Thank you to our partners the Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V. and all four local vets Despina, Maria, Giannis and Nektarios and a special thanks to the municipality of Aegina Mrs Sofia Hatzina for making this first-of-its-kind initiative such a success. 

April  -  Helpis.gr features our story

Thank you Helpis.gr and Yorgos Stamatis for featuring Zero Stray Pawject’s story on your website! You can read more here: Helpis.gr

January until June  -  ZSP together with the WTG offers subsidized micro chipping for dog owners in Aegina who cannot afford the cost

Thanks to the support of Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V. (WTG), we are offering SUBSIDIZED MICROCHIPPING in Aegina, starting in January 2019 for families who cannot afford the cost of microchipping. To find out if you qualify for the subsidy, please contact Ms Sofia Hatzina at the municipality of Aegina on 2297 320054

This is part of the joint effort of Zero Stray Pawject and the Municipality of Aegina to microchip all dogs who live on the island. Microchipping and registering is required per law 4039/2012 and 4235/2014; violators can be fined EUR 300.  So be a responsible owner: microchip your dog, avoid the risk of a fine, and best of all, have the chance to win 200 EUR every 2 weeks! This subsidy program is in addition to the ongoing Lottery program, which started in February 2018, to reward responsible owners who microchip their dogs.  

 This initiative will help to create a culture of eponymous dogs.  In Aegina we NO LONGER accept dogs with NO NAMES from residents or visitors who think they can abandon their dogs on the island of Aegina. You can read more here:

General information about WTG

Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V. (WTG) is a Berlin/Germany based registered non-profit organisation. Their vision is a world, in which animals are appreciated by people, treated according to their needs and with respect. In their work for animal welfare WTG focuses on countries and regions with little protection for animals. They aim at improving the situation for animals in the long term i.e. by providing veterinary care, by supporting animal sanctuaries and through our educational work. WTG cooperates with local partner organisations and involves the people who are directly concerned.

2018

2018 Year End Video - Thank You to our supporters, donors, sponsors, followers and adopters and a thank you to all of our volunteers

2018 was a year full of milestones on our way to achieving zero stray dogs in Greece. We started our initiative to decrease the number of stray dogs in collaboration with the municipality of Aegina with early successes. We also worked at the national level to lobby for public policy and legislative changes.

From setting up the first ever enhanced municipal dog registry for the municipality of Aegina, to de-anonymizing owned dogs to stop its abandoning, to financing a lottery, to financing a lottery to get people to microchip and register their dogs for the municipality, to sponsoring municipal dog tags. 2018 was a great year!

We cannot succeed without the continued support of our partners, our supporters, and our friends, so we wanted to say a big THANK YOU for helping us to achieve zero stray dogs in Greece!!

EIGHT DIFFICULT-TO-ADOPT/ NON-ADOPTABLE DOGS spent their first Christmas 2018 in their forever homes thanks to ZSP

ZSP is a small rescue organization, but still made the impossible possible and found six dogs that were deemed non-adoptable, and were expected to live to the end of their days in a shelter, with loving homes in 2018. Some of those dogs had waited for up to four years in the shelter. Two other dogs were taken in a "mission impossible" off the street, involving many amazing people.

August  -  Announcement of new ZSP Advisory Board

Zero Stray Pawject is proud to introduce its new advisory board.  Our goal is the reduction of stray dogs to zero in the regions that we operate in. Achieving this goal requires solving tough public policy problems.

We are delighted to welcome to our board thought leaders and problem solvers who are on their own right global leaders in animal welfare, public law and animal rights, and global business. Each of our board members believe in our vision, our operating model, and our public policy work. They have been providing their guidance and advice informally for many months. We look forward to many inspiring exchanges as we work together to solve the stray dog crisis!

June 30th -  Progress Meeting with Aegina's vets, the Municipality and local welfare organizations

ZSP spent a productive day in Aegina today. We met with all four vets: Despina, Giannis, Maria, and Nektarios to update them on the latest progress on Aegina’s Zero Stray Program "The Pawject" as well as the longer term goals towards achieving Zero Strays on the streets of Aegina. We also met with our main partner in the Municipality, Sofia Hatzina, to discuss our shared insights after the first 4 months of the Municipal Microchip Municipal Dog Registry. Earlier in the day we had a chance to spend time with Elizabeth and her husband Paraskevas from AAPA, as well as Alexia at Vouvra Farms. Days like this are inspiring. To spend time and exchange perspectives with all the key players who are all working together towards the same goal of Zero Strays and all of us trying to contribute on our part of the puzzle. Below is a picture at the main entrance to the Municipal Building on our joint effort to microchip and register Aegina’s dogs.

June 20th - 5 more lucky winners in Aegina !

Five more lucky winners in Aegina! Five more responsible dog owners who microchipped and registered their dog according to Greek law 4039/2012 and 4235/2014 who all won EACH 200 EUR!!!

June - 3 Pitbull/ Mastiffs who were impossible-to-adopt dogs were placed with loving families thanks to ZSP

Moca, Irma and Remi are all amazing dogs and had no chance of getting adopted due to breed (pitbull mixes and mastifff mixes), as well due to older age and medication needs. With the incredible efforts of Zero Stray Pawject's team, we managed to place all three of them into loving homes after very careful vetting. Irma with the saddest eyes we ever have seen moved to Eliana and Alastair and their two small children and their dog. Eliana even traveled all the way to Greece to pick up Irma. Irma since has been thriving in her new home and she does not have sad eyes anymore. Remi is an amazing boy full of energy, a cancer survivor who has to take ongoing medication. We found Janet who lives on a 4 acre farm and who fell in love with Remi. ZSP even purchased a CR82 kennel to enable the transport of Remi into his new home and since Remi has been a very happy boy. You can read about many of his adventures on Facebook and Instagram, for example his travel upstate, his first visit to a pet store and general photos of him being adopted. Moca is the sweetest dog but had some leash aggression and in combination with the stigma attached of being a pitbull mix, it made it more difficult to place her. She finally got adopted after a creative marketing approach and careful vetting. We found experienced owners and Moca moved into the best family ever and who are making anything possible to help her overcome her fears.

Even though these are only 3 lives, but especially more difficult-to-adopt dogs block shelters and shelters sometimes need a little help from organizations who put in extra efforts to help dogs that are just more struggling to find the right loving home!  

You can read more about their individual success stories here and follow the blue link in above text for additional posts on social media.

May -  ZSP sponsors flyers for 10,000 water bills to inform Aegina citizens

The municipality sends water bills to every registered Aegina citizen every couple of months. In the May waterbill, ZSP designed and sponsored a Municipality flyer that informed all citizens of Aegina about the Microchipping and Registering Initiative to reduce the stray dog count in Aegina and the lottery. This will ensure that every citizen of Aegina is aware of the ongoing initiative. 

April 24th - The Dodo helps ZSP once again, this time to place Peter Pan

The Dodo held two live streamings featuring Peter Pan on The Dodo Impact and The Dodo Twitter. Peter Pan achieved 27.8 Million views alone on The Dodo Twitter, which is an incredible result!  And yes, Peter Pan got adopted soon after and is now called "Sam". See success stories. 

April - The "Pawject" achieves 50 new dogs being microchipped and registered within only a few weeks after launch

A lot of enthusiasm for the Pawject helped to get many new dogs microchipped and registered into the  Municipal Dog Registry that Zero Stray Pawject is helping the Municipality of Aegina to set up. The First lucky winners who microchipped and registered their dogs according to Greek law won 200 EUR. In order to collect their check, they came into the municipality with their dog and posed for a photo with the director of public health or the mayor at the municipality. Every lucky winner gets published on the Aegina Municipality website, as well as on the ZSP/ Aegina Municipality microsite and on social media.

March 10th - First Independent Press Coverage of our Aegina program the Pawject on Zoosos.gr

Zoosos.gr covered our Pawject and published their article on March 10th 2018. 

March 1st - Street work - A day with the Group "Ghost Dogs of Aspropyrgos"

In March, we spent a day with the group of Ghost Dogs of Aspropyrgos following their daily work. Aspropyrgos is an industrial region outside of Athens and unfortunately a dumping ground for dogs. Owners who want to illegally get ‘rid’ of their dogs drive to the industrial area and leave their dogs behind. Something we are seeing too often not only in Aspropyrgos sadly. Obviously this is forbidden by law and those caught will get massive fines. It all comes back to enforcing microchipping and registering of every owned dog which will put an end to the constant illegal abandoning. A model that ZSP started to roll out in Aegina.

In Aspropyrgos there is no food and there are no homes, so without the volunteers of this group many of those dogs would not survive. ZSP committed to help one of their very sick dogs Brown. Read on here. 

Fdebruary - ZSP - ZSP's and the Aegina Municipality's common Microsite is live

The Micro site is live informing citizens about the Pawject, why microchipping and registering is important and mandated according to the law and how easy microchipping and registering is for each individual. The Microsite also explains how the lottery works.

Posters are hanging in various locations over the island to inform citizens about the microchipping and dog registry initiative as well as fines for not following the Greek law.

www.mitrwo-skylwn-aegina.org

February - The Municipality of Aegina and the Aegina Portal issue an official press release about "The Pawject"

www.aegina.gr

February 2018 - First ever municipal dog registry in Aegina as part of a sustainable solution to solve the stray dog crisis

ZSP is happy to announce that the municipality of Aegina and ZSP started our initiative to solve the stray dog problem on the island. Today Silja from ZSP met with Sofia Hatzina, Director of Public Health from the Aegina municipality. We started discussions with the municipality of Aegina in April 2017 and are happy to report that we have been helping them build their municipal dog registry since early January while the fuller incentive and marketing program is starting this month.

The municipality issued a press release on the 7th of February announcing the launch of the program.

ZSP will fund a lottery for every responsible dog owner who microchips and registers their dog to have a chance to win 200 EUR every 2 weeks.

Dog microchipping and registration is mandatory by law. A microchipped dog cannot be abandoned. A dog with a microchip is no longer anonymous. Our program aims to encourage microchipping and to build a culture that no dog should be without a microchip.

ZSP also DONATED 4 MICROCHIP READERS to the municipality of Aegina and the police in Aegina, which will soon be in use. We plan to donate 4 more scanners at a later stage.

2017

2017 Year End Video - Thank You to our supporters, donors, sponsors, followers and adopters and a thank you to all of our volunteers

December - 8 difficult-to-adopt dogs found a home in 2017 thanks to ZSP's efforts

Thanks to ZSP’s adoption efforts, eight dogs were saved, two from certain death and all of them found loving homes in 2017. Four of the eight dogs made it home from the Aegina shelter : Kassiopi, Ursa, Nelly and Adele. Two of those four dogs had waited for a long time for their home, so ZSP put all of our energy and resources to find the right home for them. 
Two further dogs from the eight dogs saved and homed in 2017 came from a hoarding situation. Both now live ihappily ever after and have completely transformed to be happy pups again!

"Ziko" was a stray who the ZSP founders were notified about during their vacation and whom theyrsaved from abuse in Mykonos. Ziko was trying to gain the acceptance of some children but in return they often threw stones at him; their parents never intervened. Ziko now lives in in a wonderful family and can finally grow into those huge paws ! The last dog "Roxy" was pulled off the euthanasia list of ACC Brooklyn in a 48h nerve wracking marathon against time. Roxy now lives in a loving home  thanks to wonderful people who responded to our plea, dropped everything, and drove to Brooklyn to adopt her just in time before she was put down.

December 7th- The Dodo features Nelly for adoption

The Dodo and The Dodo Impact kindly has helped us in the past and also this time features Nelly on their Live Video streams to find a loving home. 

April - December 2017 and ongoing -  Support for the Aegina Shelter

Our 2017  involvement in Aegina also includes a close partnership with the local Agistri shelter of Animal Protection Aegina & Agistri (AAPA) that has a capacity of 100+ dogs.  These dogs were already kept under Zero Stray Pawject's "Bill of Rights".  We have helped the shelter in two ways:

1. Financially, by finding monthly sponsors who make a monthly contribution; note that 100% of these contributions go to the shelter and 100% of the funds are used for dog-related and not administrative expenses. At the end of 2017, 17 Aegina dogs were sponsored through ZSP.

2. Facilitating adoptions of dogs in the shelter to families in Europe and the U.S. In 2017, Zero Stray Pawject found homes for four of the Aegina shelter dogs who had waited for years without success of getting adopted: Kassiopi, Ursa, Nelly, and Adele.

These actions to help the shelter, increase its capacity and therefore its power to solve the stray dog problem in the community.  More funds allow for more dogs to be cared for, and every adoption creates a vacant space in the shelter for another dog to be taken off the street.

November  -  Zero Stray Pawject has a new Logo

The new Logo embodies the strength and dynamic of the Paewject model to solve the plight of stray dogs by addressing irresponsible dog ownership. It has clearer lines and shows the stray dog who Zero Stray Pawject is fighting for.

November 29th  -  Disaster relief Mandra

Greek public opinion was shaken in November by the flash flood in Mandra that killed 21 people, wounded many others, and caused unimaginable destruction to homes and infrastructure. Animals were not spared.  Stray dogs that survived the flood were left covered in mud and clay; food scraps were harder to find in the post-apocalyptic landscape.  Many Greek animal welfare organizations came together to raise awareness and provide help.  Zero Stray Pawject participated in one of these "action" days in Mandra (click here for details).  

October 5th  -  ZSP attends ICAWC in Nicosia

We continued to have great discussions and are working on partnerships with other Greek, British and global animal welfare organizations to make a difference to companion animals in Greece. To this end, we attended ICAWC sponsored by Dogs Trust, the International Companion Animal Welfare conference and tied good relationships.  We all have the same goal and when we partner better together, we can achieve so much more.

September 27th  -  ZSP secures a large food donation from VetConcept and a large medical supplies donation for the Aegina shelter

May 6-7th -  ZSP attends the "Thinking Animals United" summit in NYC

Our philosophy is that when animal welfare organisations are working together, they can achieve much more and have higher impact. That is the reason why Zero Stray Pawject's co-founder Silja attended the "Thinking Animals United" summit in New York to meet like-minded large animal welfare organizations, such as the IFAW, WWF and others. Although the focus was very much on wild animals and large economic, health and even terrorist threats for the global economy related to animal welfare, stray dogs is a topic close to many organizations' heart. We hope that some of the ties we have built will lead to a larger impact for stray dogs in Greece.

April - December 2017 -  Green light to pilot our Zero Stray concept at a municipal level and preparation

2017 was a year of strategic refocusing: a sharper focus towards our Zero Stray mission by deploying our Zero Stray Program which addresses the root causes that lead to the problem of strays. These root causes are related to bad ownership and bad stewardship of dogs by their human owners. 

While shelters are a key component in achieving zero strays on the streets, there will never be enough shelters to accommodate every stray dog around the world.  Even if there were shelters for every stray dog, there would never be enough families to adopt them all; so many shelter dogs would be doomed to a lifetime in a shelter. 

Educated guesses place the number of stray dogs worldwide as high as 600 million, and 1 million in Greece.  As many as 80% are believed to have been previously owned and abandoned, as opposed to been born on the street by other strays.  A stray dog's life expectancy is compromised due to multiple factors: diseases that if untreated can lead to death, the dangers of traffic, not to mention illegal activities like poisoning. 

While neutering of stray dogs is hugely important, it will not address the actual root cause of bad ownership. The Zero Stray Program is predicated on the promotion of responsible dog ownership at the community level: at a minimum, owners who don't abandon their dogs, nor let them roam uncontrolled outside their property, especially if they are unneutered.

To promote responsible dog ownership, we partnered up with the municipality of Aegina and mayor Mr. Dimitris Mourtzis to start our Zero Stray Program.  In late 2017 Mr. Mourtzis agreed with our proposal for a joint ZSP&Municipality of Aegina initiative to plan a local public policy initiative, so that stray dogs cannot be easily abandoned anymore.   

Since we got the mayor's green light, we have been planning with various stakeholders including the Panhellenic Animal Welfare Federation (PFO), the Aegina vets, and the office of Ms. Hatzina in the Municipality of Aegina, so that we can hit the ground running at the start of 2018. You can read more here: (Scroll down, English follows Greek).

Once we start with our initiative, we will communicate more. This is step one of a four-step process. If you like to learn more about the Zero Stray Pawject concept, you can click here. 

A new location has been added. ZSP is evolving.

April 2017 -   ZSP and Aegina’s shelter have formally partnered to save dogs’ lives and get the island to a sustained “Zero Stray Dog Status”

Aegina is an island just a short 45-minute boat ride from Athens. Each year 200-400 dogs are abandoned. This is beyond the capacity of the shelter. As a result, many remain on the streets. Aegina's shelter is one of the best managed in Greece. It hosts over 100 dogs and finds “forever families” for about as many each year, in part thanks to a wonderful alliance with the German-based “Aegean Dogs” charity.

A shelter with a high adoption rate, is only half the solution to make stray dogs in Aegina a thing of the past. The other half is working with local authorities to eradicate irresponsible dog ownership, the root cause of stays. We are already in the planning stages with the municipality. In the coming weeks we hope to launch targeted programs working hand-in-hand with their team!

2016

December 2016 - Year End Message

As the year of 2016 comes to an end, we are looking back, exhausted, happy and fulfilled of what we have achieved WITH YOUR SUPPORT and would summarize 2016 as: “wow, what a year”! There are so many people to thank, that we don’t know where to start. But we know one thing, with YOUR support, within only 10 ½ months after founding Zero Stray Pawject Inc, we have :

1.       Helped build the first ever private dog rescue center on the island of Mykonos

2.       Rescued 45 dogs from a makeshift shelter that provided terrible conditions

3.       Drafted rules that ensured the well-being of dogs in a rescue center and codified them under the "Bill of Rights"

4.       Incorporated in the US and Germany as non-profit corporations 

5.       Found homes - after carefully vetting families - in Greece and the US for 6 dogs and have two more dogs reserved for adoption.  

6.       Established a sponsorship program whereby generous sponsors pay $60/€50 per month to help alleviate the costs of their chosen dogs. At the end of 2016, Zero Stray Pawject had sponsors for 28 dogs.  We also received donations in kind. The most notable was from Purina Greece that donated almost 500kg of food. 

7.       Instituted a volunteer program and during 2016 had two local volunteers who were helping the dogs on a consistent basis.

With all those good news, we left Mykonos and the dogs in the hands of the local shelter manager as of January 3rd 2017.

December:  Zero Stray Pawject is on YouTube

Subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking on the image. 

December 6th:  First "press coverage" with The Dodo featuring Star's adoption Live. 

"Star" the Greek goddess who conquered many hearts. She was discovered by an animal lover from Thessaloniki many years ago, when she endured a life on a chain at a Mykonian hotel and car rental. According to eye witnesses, she even had to give birth on the chain and was probably later on abandoned. She was then picked up by the hoarder and later on rescued by Zero Stray Pawject. Star never lost her spirit and the founders brought her to New York to find her with a home. Soon after Star was adopted by Pam in PA. With such a sad history, The Dodo got intrigued and filmed her adoption LIVE. 

CLICK HERE to be redirected to The Dodo

October 30th:  Zero Stray Pawject has 28 monthly sponsors who each sponsor one or more dogs until their adoption

Meet some of the faces of our sponsors.

October 2nd:  Zero Stray Pawject is now on INSTAGRAM

Follow us on Instagram/zero_stray_pawject and get latest news about our dogs.  

September:   Zero Stray Pawject has an own YouTube channel

Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow the latest sponsored dogs, as well as dogs for adoption and other exciting news, captured in videos

August 22nd - September 4th:  Zero Stray Pawject visits the private rescue center in Mykonos

The two founders visited the private rescue center in Mykonos for two weeks and invited many people to the private rescue facility. Every day, a different dog was walked at the beach of Mykonos with an "adopt-me" vest on. we also started to have regular volunteers visiting the private facility in Mykonos who pet, play and walk the dogs and help to get the dogs adopted.  The founders fly to Mykonos every three months to help.

August 11th:  Amazon approves Zero Stray Pawject as qualified charity and pays 0.5% of every purchase for people signing up to Zero Stray Pawject on Amazon Smile

Amazon approved Zero Stray Pawject as qualified charity. If you sign up for Amazon Smile, Amazon will pay 0.5% of every of your future purchase to Zero Stray Pawject. So next time you buy from Amazon, go to Amazon Smile, select Zero Stray Pawject as your charity (click on the picture below, which will get you to the right landing page for signing up). Afterwards, whenever you buy anything on Amazon Smile, you are supporting Zero Stray Pawject with your purchase and help to save many more dogs' lives! What a great way of helping !!!  

June 30th:  Zero Stray Pawject Germany e.V. non-profit registered into the German trade registry

On June 30th 2016 we have reached a milestone: Zero Stray Pawject Germany e.V. got registered in the German trade registry („Handelsregister“) as German non-profit company, headquartered in Berlin, delivering tax benefits to German donors. Zero Stray Pawject Germany e.V. is a sister company of Zero Stray Pawject Inc, a 501(c)3 US non-profit entity, headquartered in New York City.

May:  The rest of our dogs move into the new private foster facility

The rest of our dogs move to our new private foster facility, where they are living according to "The Bill of Rights", without chains, stress-free, paired according to temperament, with lots of space.See for example Tyson who needs a special kennel as he does not get along with other dogs.

 April 21:  PayPal set up on Zero Stray Pawject's Facebook page and website

This allows everybody who wants to help, to send their donation easily to Zero Stray Pawject and either become a monthly sponsor or contribute with a one-off donation. 

April 16:  Official launch of Zero Stray Pawject's Facebook Page

Follow us on Facebook and give us your feedback what you like to see more of Zero Stray Pawject. We will bring you the latest news in real time and stay connected with you.

April 7:  Zero Stray Pawject is 501(c)3 certified

Zero Stray Pawject is now a 501(c)3 tax exempt Nonprofit organization, as certified by the US Internal Revenue Service, providing donors and sponsors in the US with tax benefits.

April 6:  US and German bank account set up

March 15 – 19:  Zero Stray Pawject traveled to Mykonos for inspection

Zero Stray Pawject traveled to Mykonos to inspect the foster facility’s progress and invited an experienced dog trainer to evaluate the dogs.

March 14th: Founding summit of Zero Stray Pawject Germany e.V.

Founding summit of Zero Stray Pawject Germany in Berlin, a German tax exempt legal nonprofit association. Signing of Nonprofit legal papers to be registered into the German “Handelsregister” (trade registry) as an ‘eingetragener Verein (e.V.)’, which is the legal form of a Nonprofit entity in Germany. This provides tax benefits to sponsors and donors in Germany. Registry will be approved by German governmental bodies within a timeframe of 4-6 months.

Feb 27 2016: Early successes

2 weeks after launch and with a targeted marketing approach to friends and family, Zero Stray Pawject managed to attract 20 sponsors. Each sponsor chose a dog from the website and agreed to provide their dog with financial stability (filling their daily food bowl, providing clean water daily, providing their dog with basic tick-flee prevention and paying for keeping their dog’s living area clean).

Feb 14 2016: Official Launch of Zero Stray Pawject

Stray Pawject launched, starting with a focus on Mykonos, Greece. ZSP’s Website went live that day, providing background on its mission, the “bill of rights”, its dogs, success stories and content why strays are ending up on the street, why adopting is better than buying and how every responsible citizen can help. The objectives of the website are to get as many of the dogs sponsored and eventually adopted as well as to raise awareness.

Feb 2016:  The first dogs move into Tigani

Zero Stray Pawject’s Fostering facility made good progress. Half of our dogs moved to Tigani. Tigani is not a shelter but a private super-foster facility, affectionally called “Lemonia’s Garden”. The dogs are housed on private property, leased by Lemonia and every dog is legally owned by Lemonia (all dogs are chipped and registered to Lemonia on Greece’s Ministry of Agriculture pet ownership database). The dogs live according to “the bill of rights”, which provides even tougher and more specific guidelines for housing dogs than the Greek animal welfare law does.

Note: Zero Stray Pawject supports foster families and foster facilities owned by private people who are trying against all odds to help stray dogs, where municipalities ignore the problem despite their legal obligation to collect strays and shelter them.

2015

Summer – November 2015: Collaboration with local animal lover and hotel owner of a hotel in Mykonos Ftelia 

With 1 million abandoned dogs in a country of 10 million people, Greece has an outsized stray dog population in both absolute and relative terms. Silja and Theo traveled to Mykonos, Greece, in the summer of 2015 and became aware of the poor conditions under which rescued dogs were housed in Mykonos. In November they returned and started a partnership with a local animal lover and hotel owner  to help build Zero Stray Pawject’s first fostering facility.

2015: How the idea of Zero Stray Pawject was born

Zero Stray Pawject’s co-founder Silja rescued several dogs and cats during her business and personal travels over the years all across the world. She got stray dogs off the street into safety and worked with local shelters and fosters for temporary housing, returned to the locations after finding a loving family and transported each dog herself by plane into their new homes.  She stays in touch with each family. Silja also visited many shelters and rescue organizations across the world (Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Dubai, Bahrain, all across Europe and the US). Silja had the chance to speak with local shelter managers, volunteers and fosters about their daily struggle to save stray and abandoned dogs. What was striking was that rarely the root-cause was really understood. Many organizations also felt powerless to really drive systematic change as they felt that they cannot work with the authorities. There seemed to be a rift between welfare and authorities and nobody seemed to understand each other. After this experience Silja and Theo decided to create a more systematic solution, which can help hundreds, thousands, and maybe millions more dogs worldwide through understanding the root-cause, and then a systematic way how to solve it in collaboration with all key stakeholders.