The Municipality of Spata–Artemida has allocated €37,088.40 for a new contract for the capture and transport of stray animals. The decision by the mayor, Dimitris Markos (No. 698), was signed on 22 September and published on the Diaugia transparency portal on Tuesday 29 September. The amount is split over two years: €6,200 will be charged to this year’s budget and €30,888.40 to next year’s. It has not yet been announced which company will carry out the work, as the decision merely secures the funding.
The service acts as the link between a resident’s report and the veterinary clinic or shelter: someone has to go to the location, catch the animal and transport it. Until now, this has been carried out under a direct contract awarded in June 2025 to PAWSSENGERS PET TRANSFER EE, based in St Petersburg, for 20,000 euros plus VAT, i.e. 24,800 euros, for a period of twelve months from 11 June 2025. The price list for the contract ranged from 74 to 160 euros per incident, depending on whether it involved a dog or a cat, whether it was a capture or simply a transport, and whether it took place during or outside normal working hours.
The funds were not spent within the contract period. In January, the Council allocated a further €15,262.73 in its 2026 budget for the same service, and on 16 June it paid the company €12,918.49 via a second payment order. The contract was due to expire on 10 June. The contractor requested a six-month extension and the mayor approved sixty days, until Wednesday 12 August, on the grounds that the works had not been completed through no fault of the company.
Since 12 August, no new contract or payment for the capture and transport of stray animals has appeared on the Diafania portal. If the work is being carried out in the meantime by other means – for example, by municipal staff – this is not evident from the published documents.
The new amount is 12,288.40 euros higher than the previous one, i.e. almost 50 per cent. Excluding VAT, this amounts to 29,910 euros, just below the 30,000-euro threshold up to which the Public Procurement Act permits the direct award of contracts. The breakdown across the two years also gives an indication of when the new contract begins: if the expenditure is spread evenly over twelve months, the €6,200 for 2026 corresponds to approximately two months, meaning a start date around November. This is our own calculation; the decision does not specify either the duration or the start date.
The capture and transport of stray animals is just one part of the obligations imposed on local authorities by Law 4830/2021 on companion animals, to which the decision also refers. The municipality has separate contracts for the accommodation and care of stray animals in the municipal districts of Artemida and Spata, with the latest payments having been posted on 3 September, as well as for a neutering programme and for the training of stray animals. In its report for the two-year period 2024–2025, the department estimated that it manages approximately 6,000 cats and 2,000 dogs.
At the same time, on 21 September, the council took delivery of and paid for, at a cost of 31,000 euros, the digital platform for reporting incidents involving stray animals, which has not yet been opened to the public. In iartemida’s latest check, on the evening of Tuesday 29 September, the address adespota.spata-artemis.gr was once again returning an access-blocked message.
Until it is up and running, incidents should be reported by calling the Stray Animal Service on 213 2007307 or by emailing adespota@spata-artemis.gr. An email stating the exact location, the time, including a photograph and a contact telephone number, provides a written record of when the report was made.
We will get back to you once the contract has been published and it is clear who is taking over and from when.
Source: Municipality of Spata–Artemida, Mayor’s Decision No. 698/2026 on the assumption of a multi-year commitment (22/09/2026, Diafania 29/09/2026); decision on direct award for ‘Capture and transport of stray animals’ (04/06/2025); Mayor’s Decision No. 422/2026 on the extension of the contract (16 June 2026); payment order No. 1.318/2026 (16 June 2026); Commitment Decision B/93 (28/01/2026).
