HOW MANY MORE ANIMALS WILL TAKE THEIR PLACE?

Sign the open letter addressed to:

Mr Margaritis Schinas, Minister of Rural Development and Food
Mr Stavros Papastavrou, Minister of Environment and Energy

The competent Regional Governors

The This Is Gyros investigation by REthink ANIMALS, conducted in collaboration with UNLOCKED, documented serious health problems and poor living conditions affecting pigs, as well as issues concerning the management of waste and dead animals, across 27 pig farms in Greece. The handling of waste and animal carcasses raises serious questions about compliance with environmental legislation and the potential contamination of soil and water. An independent scientific assessment identified findings consistent with possible non-compliance with European legislation, requiring official investigation.

This investigation adds to previous revelations and public complaints concerning the conditions in which animals are kept on farms in Greece.

REthink ANIMALS, in collaboration with Animal Advocacy & Food Transition (AAFT), has already submitted reports and formal complaints to the competent authorities and received official protocol numbers. Our complaints have triggered official inspections in which instances of non-compliance were identified.

The issue goes beyond what happens at individual facilities. It concerns the way an entire system operates, is inspected and is publicly funded.

But who monitors the inspectors? Who ensures that inspections are meaningful, that violations are addressed, and that the competent authorities are held accountable for their actions or omissions? The protection of animals and the environment cannot depend solely on complaints submitted by citizens and organisations. The State has a responsibility to monitor the system and to be accountable for the effectiveness of its own inspections.

What we are asking for

We call on the competent Ministries, within the scope of their respective responsibilities, to take concrete action to:

1. Ensure systematic and meaningful inspections – Ensure that the complaints already submitted are properly investigated and that regular, substantive and appropriately targeted inspections are carried out at animal farming facilities, regardless of whether complaints have been filed or investigations have been made public.

2. Ensure transparency and accountability – Provide information on inspection results, identified instances of non-compliance, measures taken and the effectiveness of the competent inspection authorities, while respecting the applicable legal requirements governing disclosure.

3. Strengthen animal protection – Reinforce inspection and enforcement mechanisms and promote stricter animal protection standards, with the aim of restricting and ultimately eliminating practices that cause pain, deprivation of basic needs and prolonged confinement.

4. Protect the environment and public health – Ensure effective oversight of the management of waste and animal carcasses, compliance with environmental legislation, and the prevention of soil and water pollution.

5. Strengthen oversight of public funding – Increase transparency regarding public funding provided to animal farming operations, compliance by beneficiaries with their obligations, and the evaluation of the outcomes of publicly funded programmes.

6. Support plant-based production and consumption – Introduce concrete measures to strengthen plant-based production and consumption through public funding, incentives, support for producers wishing to transition towards activities that do not rely on animal exploitation, and the development of plant-based options in public catering.

Protecting animals cannot be limited to managing the consequences of a system that continues to treat them as products. We need to change both the conditions in which they live and the future we create for them.

The animals we saw may no longer be alive. What is certain is that others have already taken their place.

It is not enough to learn what happened. We need to know what will change.

The cost of this system is not borne by animals alone. It is also borne by the environment and by the health of us all.

Sign for the animals, for the environment, and for a different food production system.

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