THE VETERINARY Services are planning to launch an investigation into the shocking maltreatment of four pit-bull terriers, which were discovered in terrible condition at an abandoned home in Engomi.
The Services are awaiting a report by the Nicosia Animal Welfare Committee (NAWC), expected to be handed over on Monday, before taking further action, an official assured the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
The abuse was uncovered when Sharon Becket of the Nicosia Dog Shelter received a call by a concerned member of the public about four pit-bull terriers living in dire condition at an abandoned home in Engomi, Nicosia.
“It was an uninhabited house, with an overgrown garden and broken windows; it was obvious that no one was living there,” said Beckett. “When we first got there, we thought no one lived there and these dogs had been abandoned.”
Careful not to enter the house, Beckett – along with another shelter worker and NAWC officer Vicky Nicolaou, who had been called to the scene – went round the back to the garden, where they found two pit-bulls in separate cages. “They were filthy and in terrible condition,” said Beckett. “One dog was so badly malnourished, his body was full of sores; he was like a skeleton with skin on. He could barely stand up and was just a matter of hours away from death through starvation.”
The second dog was also in a very bad condition, but as he had managed to eat, Beckett hopes he will recover. “But the first dog had to be put to sleep as there was no choice,” she said.
Moving towards the back of the garden, another two dogs were spotted – one male, who was underweight, and a female who looked okay. “Even though they were very nervous, they let us into the garden. They wouldn’t come near us until they realised we had food,” said Beckett.
The three women started loading the dogs onto the shelter’s van, when the owner turned up.
“Screeching to a halt, he opened our van and dragged all the dogs out onto the street and started to verbally attack everyone,” said Beckett. A policeman who had since arrived at the scene, seemed completely out of his depth and at a loss about what to do.
“A big argument followed and it wasn’t until I told him that I had photos of everything and that he would be in trouble that he reluctantly gave permission to take away the three worst-off dogs,” said Beckett. “To my astonishment he wouldn’t surrender the fourth dog and the policeman allowed it. We don’t know where this dog is now.”
The owner, according to Beckett, was angry that his dogs were being taken away, insisting that he took good care of them. He became aggressive and abusive, even trying to take her camera off her, she said.
And it didn’t end there. At a little after noon yesterday, the man in question managed to enter the dog shelter – which is in UN controlled land in Engomi – and started shouting racial abuse at Beckett, as well as other workers there.
He also threatened to sue them for not taking good care of his dogs.
“He came up to the shelter and was racially abusive, calling me ‘that Engleza (Englishwoman)’, he started an argument with our Cypriot re-homing lady, threatened to sue us – God knows what for – and tried to push his way into the enclosure, accusing us of not taking care of his dogs,” said Beckett.
She added: “He’s a bully; he came to a shelter where we are just women and started bullying us.”
Peace was eventually restored when the women summoned some UN soldiers. “Once they arrived, he left,” she said, adding: “He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this.” “Those poor, poor dogs; what an absolute disgrace,” said Beckett.
She said she was hopeful that now, once the Veterinary Services have become aware of the matter, the man in question would be prevented from having pets in the future.
Said Becket:“The government services need to step up efforts to fight animal cruelty and this man needs to be made an example of, so people understand when they abuse their animals there will be consequences.”
Raising public awareness will be a step in the right direction, she added, while the police need to realise that there is a law that needs to be implemented. “We need public outcry to make something happen,” she concluded.
The NAWC official, Vicky Nicolaou said she was in the process of preparing a detailed report of the incident. “It is the first case where we have actively been involved,” Nicolaou said. “Usually we are told about incidents, which we then report on. But this time we were directly involved, so it’s our first such case.”
The report will be signed by the Committee’s head, Mary Hadjianastasi, and then forwarded to the Veterinary Services and police, who will then take on the case.
According to Service official Fanos Pierides, once the report arrives, an investigation will be launched.
“Once we are sent the facts, we will go and check and see the situation, see if measures have been taken to improve the situation and see how we can act from there,” said Pierides, who added that the Services had been launching their own unofficial investigation after becoming aware of the case through the media.
He added that the district committees had a right to confiscate and re-home pets, if an owner proves incapable of caring for them. And if the animal welfare laws are being violated, Pierides said the Services report them to the police.
