Give Paphiakos the help they need

Sir,
I have lost count of the number of times I have called in the people of the Paphiakos Animal Shelter to help me remove animals from neighbourhoods where they were being poisoned or because there were too many to survive on the amount of food available in the area. They never once said ‘no’. They have actually sent vehicles up from Paphos in the blistering heat of summer to Nicosia to help out.

To balance cruelty with kindness takes effort and dedication and, sadly, for all the kind people here who love and care for animals, there is also plenty of cruelty in Cyprus. Knowing that a group such as the Paphiakos is out there is a relief for animal lovers who are tuned into nature sufficiently enough to feel spiritually distressed by the suffering of creatures that cannot speak for themselves.

Isn’t it said one can tell the soul of a people from the way they treat their old and their animals? Where is the caring face that Cyprus will show to a Europe we want to care about us? We comply with Euro regulations because we have to. Regulations are being put in place for slaughterhouses because they have to be.

Hopefully something will be done about the disgraceful way in which chickens are ferried around the roads, crushed into crates far too small for them. The table-fate of those unfortunates can’t be helped as people have to eat, but come on, Cyprus, do something kind for animals that can be helped because it ought to be done out of a spirit of human kindness, not because line one paragraph 4 stipulates it has to be done.

Many people in the government are not only animal lovers but also practising Christians. Perhaps next time they hear the words of Christ read out by priests as they do their Christian duty on Sundays, these words may take on new meaning for them — “Whatsoever you shall do unto these, the least of my creatures, do ye also unto me”. Give the Paphiakos all the help you can, members of the government: where else would you find such dedicated people so willing to do so much with so little?
Colette Ioannidou,
Pallouriotissa

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.