The scenarios about the descent of wild animals to residential areas of Attica are intensifying in recent hours.Two successive incidents have given a new direction to the debate that has opened up about wolves' search for new food routes.
The fact that two dogs were found killed with a severe bite in the abdomen area leads officials to consider the possibility of an attack by a wolf that could not find food in Parnitha and descended to the Dionysos area in search of its prey during the days of polar temperatures.
On alert guarding authorities have been put on alert by an animal welfare organization that offered "shelter" to the two stray dogs that were probably mauled by a wolf, while an on-site autopsy was carried out on Sunday by an employee of the forestry department of Dionysos, at the place where the dogs were found dead. At the same time, there are three reliable testimonies from residents who say they saw the wolf roaming the area.
"Since the wild boars made their appearance in Dionysos, it was only a matter of time before their predators, the wolves, followed," residents tell protothema.gr.
Indeed, the members of the animal welfare organization that had put the two stray dogs in a fenced area, exclude the possibility that they were attacked by other dogs. They stress that all the animals housed in the special "shelters" have no problem with food as it is provided on a daily basis. "No wild boar could enter the area either, as the fence is almost three meters high," the animal welfare members explain.
Today, Monday, an emergency meeting is to be held at the Forestry Department of Dionysos and a plan is to be organized to locate the wolf and get rid of it.
"We found two dogs mutilated. This was not a bite by other dogs. This such a violent attack targeting the belly area shows us that it may be a wolf appearance," says, for his part, to protothema.gr Dimitris Pityanoudis, president of the Civil Protection volunteers of the municipality of Dionysos.
As he also explains, on Thursday morning a mutilated dog was found and then a second one was found.
"Initially we thought it was wild boars. But the footprints are not those of a wild boar. We haven't seen a wolf for 50 years," says Pityanoudis.
"Wolves could eat the belly of a dog, nor would a jackal eat a big dog," says the president of the Dionysos Civil Protection volunteers.
"As soon as wild boars came down, wolves appeared. There are wolves in Parnitha" adds Pityanoudis while noting that wolves may be responsible for the disappearance of wild boars from Dionysos.
Talking to members of the Association for the Protection and Care of Wildlife, Anima, he notes that they too do not rule out the existence of wolves in Dionysos due to the attack the dogs suffered in the belly.
According to reports from local websites and residents' Facebook groups, it is possible that wolves have also appeared in recent days in Nea Erithrea, while some speak of a pack.
It is most likely that they passed under the underpasses of the Athens-Lamia highway due to snow, local residents comment.
Source: Proto Thema
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