How this US-based veterinarian returned to Greece to help her ‘stray cat friends’

By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN

(CNN) — Growing up on the remote island of Karpathos, Greece, in the 1990s, Anna Katogiritis struggled to make friends at school and says she was bullied for being “small-sized.”

But she was able to find comfort and friendship from another source – the thousands of stray cats that roamed the island, which is situated between Rhodes and Crete.

Greece has a stray cat and dog population of around three million, one of the largest in the world, according to leading pet food company Mars Petcare.

Katogiritis, who was born in Athens, fondly recalls how the wandering felines of Karpathos showed her “a kinder version of our world,” despite the unkindness that she often experienced at school, and helped to make her childhood special.

Childhood promise

“At the time, taking care of stray cats was the one thing that was giving me hope and just a better view of the world,” Katogiritis tells CNN Travel. “Receiving kindness from anything other than people I guess.”

Although her family eventually moved to the US, and then back to Athens, Katogiritis, who continued to spend her summers on Karpathos with her grandparents, vowed to one day return to help her “stray cat friends.”

“That’s how my dream of becoming a veterinarian started,” she says. “I wanted to give back to the animals that helped me so much when I was little.”

Katogiritis goes on to explain that she didn’t even know vets existed, as there weren’t any on the island at the time, but she would tell people that she wanted to be “a doctor, but just for animals.”

After gaining a degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Crete, Katogiritis was offered a place at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and moved to Virginia, where she met her now husband.

She went on to volunteer for the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), traveling to the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in the Republic of Congo, and formed a strong bond with Goodall, who she describes as a “friend and mentor.”

But the promise she’d made to the strays of Karpathos was never far from her mind.

Katogiritis notes that the island has acquired at least two vets in the decades since she left, and a local animal welfare group was established in 2000. But the stray problem has continued.

In 2018, Katogiritis started working on plans for her non-profit animal rescue and education organization organization Animal Welfare Karpathos, founded in August 2020, bringing on board members and volunteers from the local group.

After experiencing some setbacks with funding, Katogiritis opted to fund the pilot program herself, purchasing the medical equipment and medications, as well as covering some of the expenses of the three volunteer veterinary students who agreed to fly from the US to Greece with her.

Giving back

Although the start date was initially delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Katogiritis was able to begin the program in 2021.

“It was an amazing feeling to be able to say that I was coming back as a vet, and I can finally fulfill that part of my promise,” she says. “It was very emotional.”

During the first year, Katogiritis and a team of volunteers went from village to village with their supplies and equipment, setting up mobile clinics and spaying or neutering stray cats. She estimates that they treated around 300 to 320 cats during a three-week period.

“We could have done a lot more,” Katogiritis says. “But what we focused on the most was reaching out to the community and inspiring them to take care of strays.

“So I spent a lot of my time that year and during that program speaking to the locals, talking to them about the vision and about how much the strays need help.

“Just making sure that they could understand the value of the program so they could welcome future endeavors with enthusiasm.”

Thankfully, this approach proved to be successful. Katogiritis believes this was partly due to the reaction from the tourists vacationing on the island, which receives thousands of visitors each year, who were particularly interested in the work the organization was doing.

“I think they liked how much the tourists liked what we were doing,” she admits. “So that’s part of why they ended up embracing the program. They could see that it had a positive effect on tourism.”

Some of the travelers who’ve come across Katogiritis and her team at work have gone on to donate to the program, while a number of local hotels have offered up free rooms to the volunteers.

Changing mentalities

In 2022, Katogiritis, who was five months pregnant at the time, went back to the island, which has a population of just over 6,000, to repeat the program, and she returned once again last year.

For her, being able to help change people’s attitudes towards animals is one of the most important roles of the organization and she stresses that getting children involved early on has played a major part of this.

“I tried to invite the schools, so kids can come and actually see hands-on what we do,” she says.

“We’ve had kids join every single program and see the actual surgeries if they want to. Then we teach them how to trap animals. We teach them the whole process.

“So, it’s changing mentalities, and then having a long-term effect for the benefit of the animals.”

Katogiritis recounts how a young girl from one of the elementary schools she visited in Karpathos went a local vet and announced that she was ready to become the island’s next vet in order to help the strays.

“That really gives you hope,” says Katogiritis, who has been documenting her progress on her Instagram account. “It gives you the courage to continue.”

Aside from the spay and neutering program, Animal Welfare Karpathos has also been helping to find families for strays, with members and volunteers fostering some of the cats that are desperately in need of medical attention.

The organization also facilitates animal adoptions. In order to adopt one of the strays, those interested must undergo an application process that includes an interview and the signing of a formal agreement.

Katogiritis explains that while there are no adoption fees, applicants are required to cover the travel costs of the animals, as well as the crate used to transport the animal.

Taking action

“The community of adopters is connected through our Facebook group (Animal Welfare Karpathos) where they will often share photos and videos of our beloved rescues,” she says, adding that Animal Welfare Karpathos has found homes for over 300 pets in the past three years.

“It is truly wonderful to be able to see cats and dogs who were often near death, enjoying life and receiving so much love.”

When questioned about the likely cause of Greece’s stray feline problem, Katogiritis puts it down to “government neglect over the years.”

“Lack of spay and neuter programs throughout the country, and Karpathos, is what has resulted in so many strays,” she says.

The government’s decision to mandate the neutering of all companion pets in a bid to reduce the country’s stray population was met with resistance – there are many people in Greece who are strongly opposed to neutering – in 2021.

Earlier this year, Greece’s Interior Ministry announced that cat and dog owners who chose not to neuter their pets would be required to submit their animal’s DNA to a specialized laboratory so that authorities can trace those who abandon or abuse their pets.

Those who don’t neuter their pets or present a genetic sample may face a 1,000 euro fine.

CNN has contacted Greece’s Interior Ministry for further comment.

In Karpathos, over 700 animals have been spayed or neutered through the Animal Welfare Karpathos programs. Katogiritis is currently making plans to repeat the program again in April 2024.

“At this point we are focusing on one village at a time, as this has given us the best results in controlling the cat populations,” she explains.

The second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, Karpathos is renowned for its rugged landscapes and stunning beaches.

Katogiritis returns to the island around twice a year to visit her family, who are all based there now, and says it’s “always a pleasure to be back in the country I so love.”

Ongoing work

She welcomed her daughter, Julia Konstantina, in August 2022 and was able to bring her to Karpathos last year.

While Katogiritis is incredibly proud of her work, she admits that “it hasn’t been an easy path.” She’s often come up against resistance from others who don’t necessarily agree with what she’s doing.

“Even having a room approved for a clinic is a challenge, where we make it happen,” she says. “And then the results speak for itself.”

Although she knows that there’s still a long way to go, Katogiritis is hopeful for the future.

At present, her aim is to be able to control the stray cat populations on the island through multiple programs, as well as convince the younger generation that “they need to care, they need to step up and take some positive action for the animals.”

“My hope is that we’ll do enough work where mentalities will have changed enough that everybody will be speaking up for the animals and taking action,” she says.

“And I think we’re reaching that goal with the younger generation – the older generation is a little bit more difficult to change.”

Katogiritis, who founded non-profit organization Veterinary Global Aid last year with the aim of providing free care to animals in need around the globe, says her long-term goal “is to not be needed anymore.”

“I think that applies to any volunteer and any person who does philanthropy and charity work,” she notes.

But for the time being, Katogiritis is focused on fulfilling her promise to her feline stray cat friends,” and says she wouldn’t change anything about the process.

She credits her team of volunteers for helping to get the Animal Welfare Karpathos program off the ground and keeping it going.

“A person can have ideas, but if there isn’t a good team behind that person, those ideas don’t flourish,” she points out.

“So I may have had the idea. But there’s a lot of other people behind it that make it happen.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.