CASE STUDY: ‘Zero Stray Pawject’

Posted: 9th August 2023

‘Government Leadership in Population Management in Partnership with Animal Welfare and Policy Changes’

The issue

Local governments play a central role in animal welfare. Most, however, do it poorly – often because they lack the knowledge, or are discouraged by their past failures.

Many believe that building a shelter is the solution but, with an oversupply of stray animals, no shelter will ever be big enough to accommodate every stray, and there will never be enough families in the world to adopt all the “excess” dogs and cats.

Even if we had a magic wand and could get all strays off the street and into loving homes, there will be newly abandoned pets that become strays.

This vicious circle will not break unless the root causes of (a) abandonment and (b) overpopulation are addressed.

Greece, with its population of 10 million people, is home to 2.8 million stray and homeless pets¹ and suffers from a supply and demand mismatch.

Every stray pet was once someone’s pet or, if born to an already-stray pet, is a descendant of a previously owned pet.

So, what’s the solution?

The sustainable solution is to:

Address the supply and demand mismatch by reducing pet birth rates.
Take preventative measures such as microchipping and registering DNA* that make abandonment of unwanted pets (including puppies and kittens that can be traced to the female parent based on DNA) next to impossible. (*Newly legislated Law 4830/2021.)

“Proof of concept” model island, Aegina

The island: Aegina is one of the largest in the Saronic group of Greece islands, at approximately 32 square miles (83 square km). It is approximately 27 km (17 mi) from Athens. Its regional capital is the town of Aegina, at the northwestern end of the island. In 2021, there were just over 13,000 inhabitants.

With their “proof of concept” model island, Aegina, the Zero Stray Pawject collaborated with the municipality and Police and implemented a 360-prevention programme.

The programme resulted in reducing stray dogs from an estimated 200 in 2018 to an estimated 30 in 2021 by focusing on intervening BEFORE a dog becomes a stray (i.e., strategy and tactics with owned dogs and their owners).

Phase 1

To this end, Zero Stray Pawject:

A. Helped the municipality of Aegina to set up an owned dog municipal registry.

B. Tested various tactics to encourage owners to register their dogs to the municipal dog registry:

In 2018, they ran a Municipal Lottery where every dog owner who microchipped and registered their dog had a chance to win 200€ every two weeks for 12 months (24 lotteries total), designed, set up and funded by Zero Stray Pawject. While the programme was positively received by the community, it was not successful, as they only attracted 127 owned dogs to be registered. They realised that the barrier was the high cost of microchipping.
They pivoted and offered two rounds of subsidised low-cost microchipping and registering dog owners (under a rather “flexible” low-income criterion), funded by the Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V. and Zero Stray Pawject. Instead of 40€ + VAT (~50€), dog owners signed up through the municipality to be able to access low-cost microchipping with any of the five local veterinarians for only 10€. They registered 385 owned dogs in ~1 year.
In collaboration with the municipal water authority, they sent 10,500 water bill inserts to all Aegina households, educating them about responsible pet ownership and informing about the subsidy program.
They introduced 2,000 municipal dog tags, which were given out by the municipality to every owner of a microchipped and registered dog to create behaviour change. These were designed and funded by Zero Stray Pawject.
They donated eight microchip scanners to the Forest Police, the Coast Guard, and the Hellenic Police to start microchip controls as mandated by law.
The Forest Police were the first ones who started controls in 2019. The municipality issued a public announcement, which led many hunters rushing to the local veterinarians to get their dogs microchipped, according to the local veterinarians and municipality.
After two years of collaborating with, and training, the Aegina Hellenic Police, they accepted the microchip scanners in late 2019. They then formed a police force, went around the island, knocked on doors, and issued over 1,500 warnings and fines within a couple months. This was accompanied by a public announcement through the municipality. The registry showed a 400-500% spike in weekly microchip registrations relative to the previous months.
During the time of police controls, they offered a third round of microchip subsidies between early 2020 and January 2021, entirely funded through Zero Stray Pawject. Over 100 owned dogs were registered, with a halo effect on all dog owners.
Within three years, they managed to microchip and register ~1,500 owned dogs (status May 2022) which represented an estimated 75% of owned dogs in Aegina – 1,500 dogs who will never be abandoned and become stray as the chip traces the dog back to the owner.
They organised responsible dog ownership education events with children at local schools in collaboration with SPAZ and reached 260 children.

Phase Two

Since the microchip is, however, not hereditary to the puppies, Zero Stray Pawject moved onto Phase Two of the intervention:

After getting a dog microchipped and registered, the owner must provide a copy of the certificate to the municipality by law. Absence may result in fines. Sofia Hatzina, director of public health who executed the Stray Prevention program, enforced that every owner completes a short survey (designed by Zero Stray Pawject) when registering their microchip certificate with the municipality on:
- where the dog was acquired from.
- reasons for owning a dog.
- neutering status.
- (if unneutered) why the dog is not neutered.
- (if female) whether the dog had a litter.
- (if had a litter) whether the litter was intentional or not.
- various attitudinal data.
Zero Stray Pawject helped the municipality cluster this data and created various marketing tools for the municipality to reach, educate and explain to owners the benefits of neutering, e.g.,
- Phone calls to dog owners throughout the municipality.
- Municipal targeted and personalised “segment-of-one” Text Messages (SMS) to various dog owner clusters, tailoring the message according to reasons for not neutering.
- Water bill Inserts to all 10,500 households (round two) informing them about the benefits of neutering, responsible dog ownership and the subsidy programme (see m).
- Leaflets and posters in veterinary offices, pharmacies, public offices (i.e., post office, citizens registration centre, voting office) and across the island.
- All designed, set up and funded through Zero Stray Pawject.
Zero Stray Pawject, in collaboration with the municipality of Aegina, offered almost-free neutering of owned dogs. Instead of ~80€-260€ for neutering a dog (depending on size, breed, and gender), owners only had to pay 15€ for a male dog and €20 for a female dog. The rest was funded through Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, the Bodossaki Foundation, Zero Stray Pawject and in collaboration with local veterinarians. They neutered around 250 owned dogs in two years, despite the Covid pandemic.
After three years, they managed to get over 50% of owned dogs neutered (as of 2021, status May 2022). That’s over 700 dogs who will never produce unwanted litters that may end up stray.
They ran a 360-marketing and awareness campaign including a large outdoor poster at the arrival port of Aegina, warning visitors and residents not to abandon their dog as abandonment will be punished. The poster read: “Did you forget something?”.
At the same time, the two local independent shelters continued to pick up abandoned stray dogs and adopt them.

Research studies

Zero Stray Pawject also produced insights that were new to municipalities through research studies. For example, based on survey questions, they learned that, of those owners who said their female dog had a litter, 62% of births were accidental and not planned, supporting the necessity of the stray prevention programme.

The programme, and collaboration with the municipality, various police forces and schools resulted into a significant reduction of abandonment and “production” of strays and reduced the stray dog population drastically.

This was achieved despite nine months of two hard Covid lockdowns in Greece between 2020 and 2022.

The success of this programme received a lot of national and international press coverage, including a 40-minute documentary on Vice, a documentary on ERT, The Greek Reporter and many press articles.

Numerous municipalities from inside and outside of Greece reached out for help.

Expanding the Zero Stray Pawject to other municipalities

In early 2021, Zero Stray Pawject extended their work to the municipality of Marathon on the Greek mainland.

To scale across the remaining 330 municipalities, they founded Zero Stray Academy, the first academy that trains municipalities, the police, and judiciary, how to fulfil their respective roles to ultimately end pet homelessness.

Zero Stray Academy has attracted some of the best subject matter experts across:

Government, e.g., the Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Greece, Alex Patelis, who explains the link between strays and economic prosperity, and the Special Secretary of Companion Animals in the Ministry of Interior, Marsha Dimopolou, as well as others.
Veterinary Science, e.g., the President of Vets in Action for Greece, Zoe Kontou.
Municipal Associations, e.g., the President of Greece’s Mayors Union KEDE and mayor of Trikala Dimitris Papastergiou; the President of Greece’s Municipal Chief of Staff Association, Michalis Christakis.
Law Enforcement, e.g., Police Director Heraklion of the Hellenic Police and Author of Application of Animal Laws in the Greek Police, Nikos Chrysakis and the Criminal Psychologist in the Hellenic Police, Vaggelis Drivas, who explains the scientific link between animal abuse and domestic violence, homicide and crime to explain why municipalities should not disregard animal abuse.
Animal Welfare organisations, e.g., Animal Action Hellas and Four Paws.
Special categories, like behaviourists, specialists of handicapped pets and more.

All work together towards a common goal: educate institutions (local governments, police, judiciary) to trigger systematic and sustainable change.

Post-graduation, Zero Stray Pawject provides “account managers” to municipalities. The account managers help execute the learnings through managing and monitoring municipalities’ actions.

Zero Stray Pawject now works with 105 municipalities (status May 2023). They have seen various improvements and actions from municipalities, applying their new knowledge, for example by instating stray prevention and management programmes and improving welfare for pets and people.

In May 2022, Zero Stray Pawject signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Civil Protection (during the ministership of Mr. Takis Theodorikakos), to train all the Hellenic Police on how to apply the companion animal welfare legislation 4830/2021, e.g:

What the legislation mandates.
Why, and how, microchip controls must be carried out.
How to control responsible pet ownership.
How to respond to animal abuse and what procedures to follow.

On 5 June 2023, Zero Stray Pawject started with the first two groups totalling 200 police officers (representing 200 police stations) through the Hellenic Police Academy in collaboration with the head of the newly formed Animal Protection Department in the Greek Police, Theodore Kambouris.

Professors include various senior police officers from Greece, and subject matter experts from abroad, including:

Nicole Blumberg, Chief Prosecutor of the Child Abuse Unit of the New York Attorney General’s Office.
Michelle Welch, Senior Assistant in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office of the Animal Law Unit at the Attorney General’s Office.

Two more trainings are planned in the autumn/fall of 2023 to reach a total of 400 officers across all ~400 Greek Police Stations. Every police station will have a fully trained police officer on staff by then who serves as an expert.

Its success will be measured through the number of complaints and actions taken and the next steps will be decided for further training for 2024.

Consulting on new laws

The proof of concept “Aegina” also impacted new legislation that was passed in 2021. Zero Stray Pawject was invited to consult on the draft legislation, along with other animal welfare organisations.

Zero Stray Pawject suggested the application of DNA technology to trace unchipped dogs and cats to their female parents and, by extent, to the owners of the female parents, which was legislated and passed.

Since a microchipped and registered pet can still produce unwanted offspring that can be abandoned, the new law makes it mandatory for pet owners to either neuter their pet or provide DNA. DNA of the pet is matched with the pet in a centralised national registry and can trace any abandoned puppies and kittens back to the owner.

Abandonment of puppies and kittens in Greece is now a felony and penalties are up to 10 years in jail, while the administrative fines that are applied by the police on the spot are 30,000€ per animal.

Summary

The philosophy of Zero Stray Pawject is that the microchip, coupled with the obligation to “neuter or provide DNA” can act as the “vaccine” against strays.

That is why the organisation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior (now in charge of companion animals), works tirelessly to get every owned pet microchipped and registered across Greece. This will reduce abandonment and unwanted overproduction of litters and intervene before a pet ends up stray.

The number one KPI across Greece for municipalities is now % of owned pets microchipped and registered, and that is thanks to the work and success of Zero Stray Pawject.

More actions, such as in-depth training of the Judicial in Greece (DAs, judges, etc.) are in the planning stages.

(Status June 2023)

Source:

¹ Mars End Pet Homelessness Index 2021

More information

Media coverage:

Speakers at conferences:

More about Zero Stray Pawject:

Visit the website

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