On Thursday 15 October, Pallini Municipality announced funding for an animal welfare organisation — for the first time in its history. The funding is for the organisation ‘Justice for Stray Animals’ (Stray Gerakas), which works to care for and protect stray animals, and was decided upon by the Mayor of Pallini, Christos Aidonis, following a recommendation by the Deputy Mayor for Animal Protection and Welfare, Apostolos Karanikas. The amount of the funding has not been disclosed.
Rescue, care and the promotion of adoptions, the Municipality of Pallini notes in its announcement, require “daily effort, time and significant financial resources’ from volunteers, whom it describes as invaluable partners in a responsibility that the law assigns to local authorities. It is worth noting that Pallini also has a deputy mayor whose sole portfolio is the protection and welfare of animals.
Our model: outsourcing to a private operator
In the Municipality of Spata–Artemida, the management of stray animals is outsourced to private companies. As we have reported, the municipality has this year entered into a new contract worth €37,088.40 for the capture and transport of stray animals — an amount almost 50 per cent higher than the previous corresponding contract. On Thursday 15 October, a new contract was published on the ‘Diafania’ transparency portal entitled ‘Capture and transport of stray animals’, amounting to 37,088.40 euros, with the same company (ADA 6877Ω1Χ-ΖΩΕ).
No grant to an animal welfare organisation from the Municipality of Spata–Artemida has been identified in the transactions we monitor daily on ‘Diaugia’. The day-to-day care of stray animals in Artemida and Spata — feeding, medical care, adoptions—is largely carried out by volunteers and animal-loving residents, at their own expense.
What the law stipulates
Law 4830/2021 designates local authorities as the bodies responsible for managing stray animals and expressly permits them to collaborate with animal welfare organisations and volunteers — ranging from joint trapping and adoption schemes to financial support for registered organisations. Whether this opportunity is taken up is a matter for each local authority to decide: Pallini took the first step this year, and its example raises the question for neighbouring municipalities as well.
We will look on the Pallini Municipality’s ‘Diafania’ transparency portal for the decision setting out the amount of funding, so that the comparison can be made using all the relevant information.
Source: Municipality of Pallini, press release dated 15 October 2026; Spata–Artemida Municipality’s ‘Diafania’ portal, ADA 6877Ω1Χ-ΖΩΕ, 15 October 2026.
