Greens plan demo at Paphos Zoo on Sunday

THE Green party has announced they will hold a demonstration at Paphos Zoo on Sunday in support of an activist who is against the recent introduction of two elephants at the zoo.

The man, who says he is on hunger strike in protest at the animals being kept at the zoo, claims that the zoo owner attacked him with a chair when he was protesting outside the entrance last Sunday.

The owner of Paphos Zoo, Christos Christoforou, denied the allegations saying the man did get a small mark in a scuffle between the pair, as he attempted to remove him from a chair at the entrance to the zoo. Christoforou also noted that the protest was carried out on private property which is illegal and amounted to trespassing.

The activist was removed by police from his protest point at the entrance, which was followed by Green Party statement on Monday condemning the alleged attack with a chair.

The two elephants arrived in Cyprus amid controversy almost two weeks ago and Christoforou said the two, four-year old Bono Rani and five-year old Shova Rani were gifted to the zoo (now classed as a zoo institute) by the government of Bangladesh.

Ahead of their arrival, The Animal Party and the Green Party issued separate announcements asking the authorities to revoke any licences obtained for the arrival of the animals and questioned whether all measures were taken to ensure their living conditions were up to standards.

However state authorities stressed that Paphos Zoo has obtained all licences for the two young elephants and expressed their satisfaction with the enclosure.

In the latest release, the Greens “denounce the casualness with which the authorities allowed the import of two small elephants to Peyia Zoo in Cyprus and to import and other wild animals for other similar facilities operated.”

Head of the Greens, MP George Perdikis is expected to make a statement at Sunday’s demo at 3pm.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.