Some critics vacationing in Greece make sweeping condemnations of an entire country and people based on stray dogs in Greek cities. But is this a fair basis to judge a society and its values? How about homelessness and crime and dog fighting and gang violence and school shootings? You see far less of that in Greece than in most all other places – like London and New York. When was the last time you saw young attractive well dressed girls walking alone in city streets going home three o’clock in the morning, without fear and in total safety? I have, every summer I visit Greece.

Stray dogs always existed. This is not a ‘man made condition’, but a condition of Nature. Brits and Americans round up strays and put them in shelters. Although this puts strays out of sight, the problem does not go away. Just like the problem of crime does not go away by building more prisons and locking up more people! For every animal abuse  in Greece even greater abuses can be found in some dog shelters and in dog fighting farms in the US and UK. Conditions for strays in Greek city streets are much better than their neutering and caging and eventual euthanasia in most British and American dog shelters.

Greeks just deal with strays differently. Since ancient times Greeks believe in Nature, in Freedom and in Coexistence. Greek strays (like Greeks themselves) are free to roam in peaceful coexistence with their surroundings. Whereas these critics would see strays sleeping in the shady side of a city street offensive, I celebrate such sight and see in it ample evidence of the same spirit in modern Greeks as with their illustrious ancestors. Or don’t you believe there were strays in ancient Athens? Some even may have laid side by side with Socrates and Plato absorbing the wisdom these critics lack.