THESSALONIKI, GREECE –
Three months after state vets seized and killed hundreds of his sheep to stamp out an ongoing pox pandemic, Kostas Theofilou fights back tears as he gazes at his empty stable.
“Three families lived off this place. Look what they’ve done to me. I’m 55 years old. What job can I do now?” the livestock farmer sobbed.
From August 2024 to early March, more than 480,000 sheep and goats were slaughtered because of the pandemic, mainly in central and northern Greece.