Cats in the establishments
Gallery — tap to enlarge
That has been the sore spot of the already absolutely non-existent animal welfare in Greece (besides private initiatives) — many business owners are desperate to remove any pests, including cats, from their properties before tourists arrive. “Guests do not like cats around the tavern tables or at their accommodations.” So instead of working to sterilize and keep the cat population healthy and under control, they just “remove” them.
Most often, when a visitor tries to help a struggling, sick, pregnant, too little, too malnourished, or car-hit animal, most business owners see it as an additional expense or, worse, another bad review. So before the season starts, cats just get poisoned — they did their job keeping a property pest-free, and now let’s not bother the visitors.
But today what I want to show you is the place I work — a place that for a few years had a shabby, salivating, always dirty fat boy, Lazarus, as their mascot (found by Cemetery Cats in bad condition, sterilized, with all his teeth removed). This cat, who always looked like he’d just been in a mud wrestling match, was so loved by the owners, staff and hotel guests that this summer, when I open emails from our returning guests, there is often a little message asking about Lazarus. Just like everyone who returns, they always miss this old boy we unfortunately lost…
And now our hotel has new resident cats — Titika and Frakisko, and visitor cat Vanillia. Ninety percent of our guests enter the lobby and melt at the sight of our lovely cats. They sit with them on their laps for hours, they bring treats, people of all ages play with them and take pictures with them, and they even try to smuggle them into their rooms.
In two years I haven’t seen a soul being mean to our cats, not a soul complaining about our cats, not a soul writing a bad review… On the contrary — people return because of them.
So one more time — if you cannot afford to treat or sterilize the cats around your property, contact the municipality. If you are afraid your guests will complain, please realize:
Visitors only complain when there are sick, starving and mistreated animals in your establishment — and this is on you.
Do not blame the guests, and do not blame the cats.
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