One thing that I noticed often while living in Athens that is very different from living in the United States was that there were countless stray cats and dogs around on the street. There were certainly more cats than dogs, and dogs were only in certain areas, but this was still very strange compared to in the US, where while I might see some stray cats in a suburban neighborhood, I would never see them in very urban areas, and I would definitely never see stray dogs. In the US, there is a clear effort made to keep stray dogs in particular off of the streets. Those efforts are somewhat controversial in the US, as this leads to pounds/kill-shelters overflowing with unwanted dogs. In Greece, presumably, there are no (or very few and not very populated) pounds, however there is a more visible problem of those pets wandering the streets without a home.
While I was there, I learned that Greece, in preparation for the 2008 Athens Olympics, made an effort to vaccinate as many stray cats and dogs as possible. However, it would be too expensive for the Greek government to sterilize them all, so they continue to populate the country, though without dangerous diseases like rabies that are a problem in other countries with large stray dog populations like India. I also learned that Greece tries to make it relatively easy for visiting tourists to take the animals back to their home country, particularly the cats since there are so many of them.
All of this was very interesting to me, because while I have been to other countries around the world that have a much more pronounced problem of there being so many stray cats and dogs (particularly the problem is with dogs), in Greece it felt less like a problem and more like a different approach to the issue than what the United States does. They were handling the population of strays not by taking them off the streets, but by making sure they were vaccinated and not causing problems for the people. However, it still made me sad to see stray dogs walk around looking for food, because that is not what I am used to seeing in the US.
I think someone from Athens might view my surprise at the sheer number of stray animals as odd because they are more used to it, or perhaps would argue that at least they are allowed to live their lives freely and not be sent to pounds like they would be in the US. I also think someone would have a mirrored perspective to mine in that if they traveled to the US, they might find it peculiar that we don’t have as many stray dogs around. On the other hand, maybe they wouldn’t notice that in particular, but they would notice something else that would seem more day-to-day to them, such as the lack of public transportation in US cities in comparison to Athens or other cities in Europe.
Many things about everyday life in Greece struck me as particularly different compared to everyday life in the United States, or other western European countries that I have spent time in. Reflecting on these differences, and the reasons for them, I feel more prepared to deal with future cultural conflicts, perhaps in the workplace as I am considering the foreign service. I think the biggest factors that have created these differences have to do with the wealth of these different countries. Greece is much poorer than the US or France or Germany, and therefore does not have the resources to go out and sterilize the entire stray cat and dog population to stop this problem; however, they have adapted to it in different ways, and also hold different values than many Americans do on this issue.