Ippothesis is a Panhellenic Equine Welfare Society (PA.S.P.I) registration number 30636 which was founded in 2015. It was born out of the necessity to apply legislation by submitting proposals to the competent Ministry, to enforce control mechanism, deposit written questions at the European and Greek Parliament, organize a strong educational sector so as to inform civilians and stop the abuse of equidae in our country.

Our first rescue operation took place in December 2016.After several months of investigation, collecting information and evidence for the abuse of equines at a certain place we filed a written complaint at the Public Prosecutor for animal welfare. We saved 12 malnourished equidae in horrible situation tortured by kill buyer’s family. Since then, we succeeded rescuing more equines, each time with a Prosecutor’s written directive. Rehab and rehome them without even have our own stable establishment. Unfortunately, responsible adoption is difficult to achieve and some of our adopted horses were returned. However, our society covered all expenses and we managed to find better adoptions for them.

Greece has incorporated some of the Community Directives concerning equidae without applying any control mechanism. In our country there is no Community regulation applied concerning registration and identification of equidae. There is no electronic database and therefore on 17 April 2019 we filed a legal complaint through our lawyers at the European Commission against the competent Ministry.

In 2017 Ippothesis was awarded by the Citizens Movement for an Open Society by the President of Hellenic Republic for our voluntary contribution.

We have participated in conferences organized by Hellenic Police and Geotechnical Chamber presenting “Equine abuse and welfare in Greece” During festival for the Greek Horse at Prastos area in Arkadia we had the chance to present to young children and adults the physical and psychological needs of equines so as to make them feel safe and healthy.

For financial reasons we couldn’t afford having our own establishment so we were using stables with a fee so as to rehab horses minimizing number of equines that can be saved. We also plan to prepare an appropriate educational and informational program on equine welfare which will be presented at schools. Especially in areas where bad mentality has prevailed and animals are used for work and profit without any control and respect. Even today, animals are hobbled and small societies believe that this abuse is part of their tradition.

Our aim is to achieve through legal procedures the incorporation of all legislation on equine welfare and to create an institutional framework to protect these animals.

Our proposal through Panhellenic Animal Welfare Federation to ban equine slaughter in Greece was approved. According to Law 4711/2020 article 17 the breeding, use and export of dogs, cats and equidae for the production of fur, skin, meat or for the manufacture of medicinal or other substances is prohibited.