Animal welfare groups in Greece are protesting the aerial rabies program for the red fox population, which they say will end in the unnecessary and unethical killing of hundreds of animals.
They launched a campaign to stop the program that authorizes the systematic killing of these animals by hunters for a “bounty” of €75 ($88) per head, to verify the vaccine’s efficacy.
“The logic of ‘protecting’ a species only to slaughter it as a means of data collection is an ethical paradox that the public can no longer accept,” a petition on Change.org says. “We believe that conservation must be rooted in the preservation of life, not the convenient termination of it for laboratory convenience.”
Greece as a rabies-free country
The Ministry of Rural Development and Food (MRDF) officially recognizes Greece as a rabies-free country, with no cases having been recorded since 2014. “Given this status, the decision to continue lethal “active surveillance” is not only archaic but entirely disproportionate. It is a violent solution to a problem that, by the Ministry’s own data, is currently under control,” the petition notes.
Animal welfare groups say that modern science provides the tools to monitor wildlife health without resorting to killing. They call on the government to adopt internationally recognized non-lethal methods, such as:
- Enhanced passive surveillance: Rigorous testing of animals found deceased from natural causes or road accidents
- Trap-test-release (TTR): Utilizing serological testing on live foxes that are safely trapped, sampled, and returned to the wild
- Environmental monitoring: Evaluating the intake of vaccine baits through non-invasive field observations
A call for coexistence with wildlife and foxes in Greece
In an era where devastating wildfires have decimated Greece’s natural habitats, every individual animal that survives is a vital component of our recovering ecosystem, the petition stresses. “We cannot advocate for the ‘protection’ of wildlife while simultaneously subsidizing its destruction,” it maintains.
Activists call on all relevant authorities to align Greek policy with modern ethical standards. “We must replace lethal ‘check-and-kill’ cycles with compassionate, science-based conservation,” they concluded.
Related: A Fox Pays a Surprise Visit to the Acropolis in Athens
