The Tsipras government, and specifically the relevant agriculture development ministry, on Tuesday withdrew a controversial draft bill on the care, ownership and management of pets and strays in the country, a bizarre - even by modern Greek standards - piece of legislation that prescribed Draconian measures and fines.
The draft bill had generated howls of protest by the opposition and animal rights' groups, with most of the scathing criticism aimed at alternate agriculture minister, Yiannis Tsironis, a heretofore mostly low-key cabinet member that hailed from a tiny ecologists movement.
Among others, the draft bill envisioned the creation of a "zoophilia fund" in every municipality, the obligatory tagging of all pets - mainly via an implanted chip that owners would pay for - and the animals' listing on some sort of state data base.
Greece, which lacks a functional, unified and digitalized land registry, would have enacted a law mandating a "passport" for pets, with particulars for each animal listed in the form of a public document. Another provision of the hastily withdrawn bill would have obliged veterinarians to apply the universal tagging system, while another provision would have foreseen a fee for keeping over a certain number of pets and liability for people caring for strays.
Moreover, fines would have reached a maximum of 3,000 euros for violations dealing with failure to neuter and spay pets and failure to register pets.
Conversely, on the plus side, the draft legislation would have severely stiffened fines and penalties for the mistreatment and death of animals.
