NICOSIA — Dog shelters in
Cyprus are
overflowing in what some volunteers are calling a crisis caused by the
abandonment of canines adopted during COVID-19 as well as complications arising
from Brexit.
اضافة اعلان
“Shelters are filled to the brim,” said Monica
Mitsidou of Dog Rescue Cyprus.
Dog adoptions were made by many people “when they
shouldn’t have” during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mitsidou told the Cyprus News
Agency, calling the situation “unprecedented”.
During Cyprus’ toughest restrictions aimed at
halting the spread of the coronavirus in 2020 and early 2021, dog-walking was
one of the few reasons people were allowed to leave their homes.
Evita Charalambous, a volunteer at
PAWS (Cyprus
Association for the Protection and Care of Animals), blamed “the economic
situation” and Brexit for fewer adoptions, saying Cyprus was facing a “massive
problem”.
But she also said people were failing to neuter
their dogs, and pointed to difficulties finding pet-friendly apartments.
Volunteers say demand for Cypriot dog adoptions has
plummeted, particularly in Britain, which is usually a top destination for
pooches from the eastern Mediterranean island.
“Brexit affected us tremendously,” said Constantina
Constantinou, a volunteer at non-profit Saving Pound Dogs Cyprus (SPDC).
“The bureaucracy is much more complicated,” she told
AFP, and the dogs’ travel costs have also increased sharply, making it “much
more difficult” for Britons to take in dogs from
EU member Cyprus.
More than 3,000 dogs are estimated to be housed in
shelters across Cyprus.
On the outskirts of the capital Nicosia, a husky
with a purple-and-black collar stared out from its pen at a sanctuary run by
SPDC, as other dogs nearby barked or pawed the ground.
‘Not the solution’
At another shelter outside
Nicosia, run by Simba Animal Aid Cyprus, several dogs played together in a
large pen, while others sought shady refuge from the summer heat or lapped up
water from a bucket.
Simba’s Andreas Tsavellas, 43, said the number of strays
“is always on the rise” due to “the economic crisis and other factors”.
“We receive 5–20 dogs a week — found as strays in
the streets by the municipalities and then brought to us,” he told AFP.
But he played down the idea that people adopted dogs
during the height of COVID-19 restrictions as an excuse to go out, saying: “We
haven’t got enough data to prove that.”
“We’ve always had cases of abandonment, not only
during the pandemic,” he said.
Volunteers have called on authorities to enforce
legislation on animal welfare and to curb illegal breeding and dumping, often
by hunters.
“The government must take serious decisions ... and
take action to make neutering (dogs) a law,” said SPDC’s Constantinou, adding
that more checks were needed around importing canines.
Others said the current dog dilemma highlighted a
different issue.
“Sending (dogs)
abroad was not the solution,” Charalambous from PAWS told the Cyprus News
Agency.
“We were essentially sweeping the problem under the rug.”
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