A 55-year-old architect and property development company founder is being sought by police after officers discovered an illegal rooftop farm.
The architect had secretly operated for five years on a building in the Ampelokipi district of central Athens, housing 61 animals including goats, chickens, ducks and other poultry.
The makeshift installation was uncovered following a complaint to authorities, who climbed to the rooftop and found a partitioned enclosure with separate cells for each species.
The man had kept 15 goats, 36 chickens, 3 ducks and 7 other birds in conditions authorities deemed unsuitable. The animals were found to be in good health and were transferred to appropriate shelter facilities for veterinary examination.
The suspect, described as a man of varied interests beyond his business activities, had also cultivated a vegetable garden on another building rooftop in central Athens and operated a private winery in one of his properties.
The animal protection prosecutor was notified and additional municipal and health services were mobilized under police coordination to remove the animals, conduct veterinary checks and document potential urban planning violations.
A case file has been submitted to the prosecutor and the man is being actively sought for arrest.
The discovery follows a separate rooftop farm case in the same neighborhood reported earlier this week, in which police charged a different individual and a property management company after finding goats, chickens and ducks being kept in unsanitary conditions on a Kifisias Avenue building.
The two cases are unrelated but have drawn attention to a startling gap in urban enforcement in one of Athens's most densely populated residential districts.