"Riot dog" is a term used by English-speaking media denoting any of the stray dogs that accompanied

street protester A political demonstration is an action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause or people partaking in a protest against a cause of concern; it often consists of walking in a mass march formati ...

s in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, in the aftermath of the

2008 financial crisis 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, when the country was plunged into a severe recession by the

Greek government-debt crisis Greece faced a sovereign debt crisis in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Widely known in the country as The Crisis ( Greek: Η Κρίση), it reached the populace as a series of sudden reforms and austerity measures that ...

."Riot Dog fans"
News.com, Australia, 11 May 2010 It has been observed that a number of these dogs remained among the protesters even when violent

rioting A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...

breaks out. Greece's Riot Dogs acquired a large following of fans around the world via the media of the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

as a symbol of the protests of the

everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...

against an

oligarchic Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, r ...

government state."Amid the turmoil of the Greece financial crisis, photos and videos of street protests have turned up a kind of canine "

Where's Waldo ''Where's Wally?'' (called ''Where's Waldo?'' in North America) is a British series of children's puzzle books created by English illustrator Martin Handford. The books consist of a series of detailed double-page spread illustrations depicti ...

" figure: a mutt that....clearly has a strong interest in civic disorder": Fro
"Mysterious 'Rebel Dog' of Greek riots becoming latest Web icon"
by Brett Dykes, ''Yahoo News'', 7 May 2010

The dogs

Kanellos (: cinnamon), a distinct blonde, male, mixed-breed canine,"Kanellos the Greek protest dog makes another appearance"
''

WINK-TV WINK-TV (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for Southwest Florida. It is owned by the McBride family and their Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, making it one of a hand ...

'',

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate, 7 May 2010 was arguably the first incarnation of the Greek Riot Dog. His maiden appearance was in photographs taken at a general assembly of students in the occupied

National Technical University of Athens The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...

. Kanellos became famous in the 2008 Greek riots, when Greek photographers and cameramen started to notice a dog that kept appearing in their footage. The stray seemed to always walk amongst and side with the protesters."The hound always seems to side with the protesters, whatever the dispute." Fro
"Kanellos the Greek protest dog"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 6 May 2010 According to reports by witnesses, Kanellos, in his final years, suffered from

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

, which motivated a group of college students to collect money and purchase him a dog's

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

. This allowed him to live indoors, among the students, until he died."OK! let’s clear this out"
RebelDog website Thodoris () is a Kanellos look-alike, believed to be one of Kanellos' pups. Thodoris is a light golden-colored, mixed breed dog, who, despite being a stray, has seemingly been provided with all the necessary medical shots, as evidenced by his blue collar.
, by Paul Katie, ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'', May 2010

Loukanikos Loukanikos ( grc-gre, Λουκάνικος: "the sausage loukaniko"), initially named "Theodor", was a Greek riot dog that participated in almost every anti-austerity protest in Greece. He was commonly known for joining protests, barking at poli ...

(: the sausage

loukaniko Loukaniko (Greek: λουκάνικο) is a type of Greek sausage made from pork or lamb and typically flavored with orange peel, fennel seed, and various other dried herbs and seeds, and sometimes smoked over aromatic woods. They are also often ...

) or more commonly Louk (), sometimes confused by the media for Kanellos,"Loukanikos, the Greek anarchist dog"
LibCom, 8 May 2010 has been present at nearly every recent protest in

in the past few years. This stray has ostensibly become the symbol of Greek protests against the IMF- and ECB-prompted

austerity Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: higher taxes to fund spend ...

measures. There's uncertainty about the claim that Loukanikos and Thodoris may, in fact, be the same dog"Kanellos and Thodoris Loukanikos"
by 'Karlo Krystaller', ''Black Capitalism'', 25 December 2011 (in Greek) however this was later confirmed false after Loukanikos died due to ingestion of tear gas, due to constant protesting. In September 2011, on the occasion of a striking policemen's union marching in the centre of Athens, Loukanikos, according to eyewitnesses, was "initially confused" between two opposite sides both of uniformed policemen but, when the riot police contingent attacked their striking colleagues, the dog sided with "those who were being attacked." Loukanikos' health was "severely burdened" by the inhaling of

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ad ...

and other chemicals during the many riots in which he participated"Ena Adio Ston Loukaniko"
("A Goodbye to Loukanikos"), '' Avgi'', 9 October 2014 (in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

) but lived until approximately ten years of age, dying peacefully on 9 October 2014 at the home of a person who cared for him.

Other dogs

In Chile, in the 2010s, a stray dog accompanied student protests. Protesters named him " Negro Matapacos" (from Spanish ''matar'', to kill, and ''paco'', which is Chilean slang for "policeman"; his full nickname therefore translates to "Black Cop-killer"), or refer to him simply as "El Negro". Matapacos died on 26 August 2017 of old age with a veterinarian and other people by his side. During the Chilean protests of 2019–2020, other dogs were seen alongside protesters. Such is the case of Pepe Matapacos (shortened as "Pepe") in Concepción and Vaquita ("little cow" because of his white and black-dotted fur) in Antofagasta.

In culture

In 2011, American singer/songwriter

David Rovics David Stefan Rovics (born April 10, 1967) is an American indie singer/songwriter. His music concerns topical subjects such as the 2003 Iraq war, anti-globalization, anarchism, and social justice issues. Rovics has been an outspoken critic of ...

released a song entitled "The Riot Dog". Loukanikos appears as a

non-playable character A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster ...

in the video game ''

Tonight We Riot ''Tonight We Riot'' is a beat 'em up game released in 2020 by American studio Pixel Pushers Union 512, and published by Means Interactive, both worker cooperatives, and released for Windows, MacOS, Linux and the Nintendo Switch. The game promot ...

'', in which he assists the player in a left-wing revolution.

Gallery

File:Κανέλλος.jpg, Kanellos near the speakers' table, in the general assembly of students, National Technical University of Athens, 2007 File:Louk dog attacked by mat.jpg, Thodoris narrowly avoiding a kick by a riot policeman, 2011

References

External links

Kanellos , Facebook

Louk , FacebookLoukanikos , Facebook"The Greek protest dog"
picture gallery in ''

Video footage

"Sausage, the riot dog of Greece"

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

report
"Greece's front-line riot dog"
BBC News
"Riot dog stands his ground as Greek firefighters protest in Central Athens-March 26, 2009"
independent media {{DEFAULTSORT:Riot Dog Individual dogs Political activism Political movements in Greece