With everyone by now seeing it all over, whether in the streets or in the media, the problem of stray and abandoned animals this year is definitely getting worse and worse. Just on the dedicated social media groups, more and more dogs and cats are coming up as lost, abandoned, neglected, in terrible condition, emaciated, wounded, hit by cars etc.
Animal Rescue Cyprus is seeing dogs and cats coming in as rescues on a daily basis, an average of 10.54 animals per day (as of August 2022), and many of these are puppies and kittens. So far, the peak of very young aged rescues coming in was reached during the second week of August 2022, when 30 (thirty!) puppies of different ages were taken in over the course of just seven days.
Then, more and more kittens seem to be around this year, and the majority of them very sick from the youngest of ages. And so on… But, as has been the case for at least 20 years so far, Animal Rescue Cyprus is still running the largest Trap-Neuter-Return program on the island, free for stray cats, where many thousands of cats are neutered throughout the year and then returned to their locations/colonies. All the other clinics will be spaying and neutering cats too.
And even so, nothing ever seems to be enough in order to bring the situation under some sort of control…
All shelters are full to the brim, adoptions seem to be at their lowest and even with tourists returning on the island and finding animals they fall in love and decide to adopt, donations of food and monies are also low, and things don’t look too promising. And this begs the question: for how long can this situation carry on?
Furthermore, IS there a viable solution to the problem of stray animals in Cyprus? If so, what is it?
Everyone is aware that sending animals abroad to homes is not the long term solution to the problem our lovely island is facing, but even less so is having any kind and any size of shelters pop up overnight where so many animals are housed for an indefinite period of time.
The funding necessary to keep something like this up is simply not available (not to mention the extra funding needed for all the medical cases and emergency treatments etc.) and other than education and unrelenting spaying and neutering of dogs and cats alike, we fail to see any long
term solution. But what about the short term?
Animal Rescue Cyprus is very grateful for any and all donations you can send by PayPal using email address sponsor@cyprusanimalwelfare.com or via bank transfer in the Hellenic Bank Branch 595, Danaes Avenue 8042 Paphos, account name: Animal Rescue Cyprus, account number: 595-01-G46696-01, Swift code HEBACY2N, IBAN code: CY65 0050 0595 0005 9501 G466 9601.
For any information regarding our activity please call 26946461 or email reception@cyprusanimalwelfare.com
