Sir,
I have recently read many letters on the subject of animal welfare in Cyprus and although I am happy to see such an amazing amount of interest suddenly generating on this subject I find myself having to stand up for the Welfare systems in Pafos.
I am a Qualified Veterinary Nurse who has worked for Animal Charities both in the UK and Cyprus for 12 years, and during that period I have experienced a great deal of animal “shocks and horrors”.
Animal Welfare Charities have become very misunderstood organisations. Unfortunately they are far from glamorous. Wherever you go in the world there is animal abandonment and cruelty.
The questions we have to ask ourselves are:
Where have these animals come from in the first place?
Excessive breeding – unfortunately the animal welfare systems in Cyprus have very little government backing and therefore are unable to keep up with payment of the neutering schemes they can only dream of getting under control.
There are a great many people who do not understand the benefits of neutering their animals – it is claimed to be an injustice to the body of an animal and understandably so.
However, what animal education tells us is the variety of reasons as to why we neuter our animals: To maintain a low population of our furry friends so animal welfares don’t have to put down the animals they receive on a daily basis (Trust me: we really do not enjoy having to put down so many animals, in fact we all find it soul destroying!). It also lowers the chances of testicular, prostate, mammary cancers, inguinal hernias and pyometras, giving your pets a longer, healthier life.
I could go on all day, however, this leads me onto the next question:
Where is the Animal Welfare Education in Cyprus?
Most of the cruelty in Cyprus is due to lack of education! It’s not malicious, as seems to be the popular view with the British over here at the moment. Perhaps they should look at their own country, where there are animal education programs on every channel and still terrible abuses occur!
Animals here are regarded as working animals. Their basic needs are: shelter, water and food. If this is put across to those who own animals, then animals will become a lot happier. It is not necessary for an animal to share a bed with ‘Mummy’ and it is far more cruel to feed an animal chocolate and other treats, causing a major cruelty in Britain – obesity!
As for the use of lanate, this again can be an exaggeration. Lanate is a component of weed killer used to treat the large amount of olive trees and other agricultural products here in Cyprus. It does not have colour, taste, smell, or dissolve in water, so when the agricultural products are then irrigated the lanate washes away with the water, which is then consumed by animals. There are many other weed killers safe to the environment and animals of Cyprus. The government should ban lanate and introduce other products.
Lanate is not necessarily used to punish animals in general, although I am not completely blind to know that this and other cruelties do go on.
Tamara Strick (English veterinary nurse, formerly RSPCA)
