Mykonos: Cows have their feet strapped to avoid annoying tourists! (video)

“The prosecutor must intervene immediately”, activists argue

By Frixos Drakontidis
The pictures are breathtaking. The kind animal you see in the exclusive shots provided by protothema.gr hardly walks a few meters. He seems to be irritated and suffering as its right front leg is tightly tied with a rope to its right rear leg. The owner tied the two legs of the poor animal to discourage it from traveling long distances, so that he could trace it at any time, ignoring the pain and wounds this might cause.

It is also a way to keep them away from the streets and beaches that tourists are. This method is called in Greek “pastouroma” and is a serious form of abuse from a very young age the breeders tie the legs of the animals thus spend their entire lives having great difficulty in making even the slightest moves.

Members of animal welfare organizations on the island complain that mistreatment and abuse of this kind to cows and calves can be fatal.

“If the rope gets tangled in a rock or some heavy object, there is a risk of the animal falling down, which is then almost impossible to get up, so it may die on the spot”, they say and add, “only to see the wounds on their feet, as they have to walk around for several hours, is enough to make you angry”.

“The prosecutor must intervene immediately”, they emphasize.

In addition to all of the above, this method can cause tendonitis, or even to cut tendons and deep skin wounds due to friction with the rope which can also lead to amputation.

According to protothema.gr, these nice animals in the footage you see, belong to a farmer who happens to be a close relative of a former mayor of the island. He is responsible for the inhumane and cruel method applied to them in order to be controlled.