ZERO STRAY PAWJECT

Zero Stray Pawject educates, designs and executes programs in collaboration with local governments that sustainably reduce the number of stray and homeless pets and improve animal welfare, public safety, public health and local economies.

Zero Stray Pawject is a small and growing NGO registered as a 501(c)3 US non-profit and German e.V. non-profit organization, providing tax benefits to donors in both countries. ZSP consists of a team with expertise in public health, law, animal welfare and business management and management consulting across three continents based in the U.S., Germany, and Greece. ZSP works closely with municipalities, its mayors and directors of public health, police forces, local veterinarians, and schoolmasters and designing and executing public policy programs that reduce the "production" of stray dogs and cats and at the same time drive societal change that is long term orientated. We ensure to have clear KPIs in place to measure success.

Nobody on the Zero Stray Pawject’s board receives any type of compensation and everybody works as a volunteer, dedicating their free time to a good cause.

our people:

SILJA SCHILLER-MOUMTZIDIS, CEO, AND THEO MOUMTZIDIS, HEAD OF STRATEGY AND FINANCE DIRECTOR - FOUNDERS

We adopted our dog "Caprice" during our wedding week. Caprice had been a stray on the island of Mykonos. This experience further opened our eyes to the struggle of many fosters, shelters, and other animal lovers who are trying against all odds to provide care for stray dogs. We are business professionals with a combined over 45 years of business experiences in public health, the pharmaceutical industry, banking, management consulting and the pet care industry, and decided to develop what we believe could become a systematic end-to-end solution to the stray problem in communities where it is applied.

We founded Zero Stray Pawject in February 2016.

We founded Zero Stray Academy in 2021 to scale our successful municipal models across Greece and expand to cats.

We have been since focused on Greece.

SOFIA TZONIKI, SECRETARY GENERAL GREECE

Sofia joined Zero Stray Pawject in early 2020 in the position of Secretary-General of Zero Stray Pawject in Greece.

Sofia has a 25 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 works on the ground in Greece on certain responsibilities to drive forward our program to achieve zero stray dogs across Greece.

Advisory Board

Zero Stray Pawject is proud to introduce its new advisory board.

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!

Click here to find out who they are:

OUR HEADQUARTERS

Zero Stray Pawject Inc is headquartered in New York, NY. Zero Stray Pawject Germany e.V. is headquartered in Berlin.

THE REGIONS WHERE WE HAVE FEET ON THE GROUND:

Aegina: April 2017 - present

We are working hand in hand with the municipality of Aegina, and Ms Sofia Hatzina, Director of Public Health, the police, the local veterinarians and the local shelter on eradicating the problem of stray dogs through public policy initiatives. Aegina has become A MODEL ISLAND and we are working towards making Aegina the first island in Greece to have ZERO STRAY DOGS so that the model can be rolled out across Greece.

Marathon: December 2020 - present

After our success in Aegina, we started rolling out our zero stray model in Marathon, Ms Eleftheria Hatzigarvriil and key stakeholders in Marathon, to introduce the success of Aegina of bringing down the number of abandoned dogs to a level that can be managed by the local animal welfare and municipality.

Santorini: November 2020 - present

Santorini is the third municipality that we started providing guidance. Unlike Aegina/ Marathon, we never funded microchip, spay and neuter programs, but are available to the municipality for advise.

Mykonos: November 2015 - January 3rd 2017

During the end of 2015 and throughout 2016, we supported a local hotel owner in her efforts to build and operate a private rescue center in Tigani, Mykonos to house the dogs that had previously been under her care. We are very proud that our support enabled the transformation of the lives of these 45 dogs from a condition that had caused the justified negative reaction of local animal lovers, as well as the state vet, into a new life without chains, with food and clean water, no fear of being attacked or killed by other dogs. After our success in transforming the canine lives of 45 dogs in Mykonos and helping to build a local shelter, including adoptions of 5 dogs in the US and Germany, we left Mykonos in early January of 2017 to focus on wider public policy initiatives to ensure we combat the root-causes, which is irresponsible dog ownership, abandonment and overpopulation.

MUNICIPALITIES WE TRAINED AND SUPPORT THROUGH OUR ACCOUNT MANAGERS:

In August ‘22, we helped 53 municipalities to graduate from Zero Stray Academy. Our dedicated account managers work hand in hand with these municipalities to implement change. Please visit Zero Stray Academy to view all municipalities we trained.

Our Credo

We are a purpose-led organization, promoting welfare and responsible dog ownership through public policy initiatives to solve the stray dog crisis and avoid a public health risk. We strive to improve dogs’ and people’s lives.