I’ve just visited a holiday forum on the Internet. One resident said that if you are making your first visit to Cyprus “you should be warned that animal cruelty is prevalent here”. They said that it was the “one thing I hate most about living in Cyprus after 10+ years and it doesn’t get any easier.”
They say that dogs and cats are poisoned on a daily basis. Dogs are chained up and left out all day without shade or exercise. No love given, they say. And it hurts to read that “cats are mostly found dead on the road and not moved until the local government come along. They add that they are extreme acts of cruelty against cats including shooting, hanging and impalement. Obnoxious acts by deviant, ignorant people.
The forum user goes on and on about animal cruelty in Cyprus. It is simply horrendous. And the reason why I visited this holiday forum on the Internet is that I had just previously visited a website in which it reports, “mass poisoning of cats, kittens and hedgehogs.”
There are some horrific pictures illustrating the article (fortunately pixelated). The mass poisoning took place in the village of Maroni in the Larnaca province. It caused revulsion in many citizens but clearly not enough for anything to change.
The article tells us that the police did not investigate the matter properly. Comment: this is a typical reason why there is animal cruelty in any country. There may be decent animal welfare laws but if the police are disinterested, they are unenforced and next to useless or worse than useless.
When the police do not act and do their work in respect of any particular criminal activity, that particular criminal activity is going to get worse because the criminals know that they can get away with it. This is happening in the UK in respect of shoplifting in a very big and disturbing way. In the UK the police are often asleep.
In the article they say that poisoned kittens are turning up all over the place. It would appear that the hedgehog was just collateral damage as the poisoner probably wanted to poison the community cats and put down baited food for that purpose.
It appears that no autopsies were conducted and therefore the state is disinterested in tackling animal cruelty.
This is particularly worrying because there are more community cats in Cyprus than there are human residents. That’s because not enough people ensure that the cats are spayed and neutered to prevent them procreating. This is another reflection of a “I don’t care” mentality regarding animal welfare on that island.
Internet users don’t have to go very far to find countless reports of animal cruelty in Cyprus particularly poisoning of community cats sometimes referred to as feral cats. There is a difference because community cats are, in general, cared for by the community except for veterinary care.
Dogs are also poisoned and of course wildlife as mentioned because putting down poisoned bait is indiscriminate.
In 2018 the Animal Party criticised the government over mass cat poisoning. Nothing appears to have changed.
On another forum, a user said that, “in Cyprus the Cypriot population are at least indifferent about these types of atrocities [meaning animal cruelty] if not supportive [meaning they welcome animal cruelty].”
Some people say that the Cypriot people are animal lovers but that is clearly very far from the truth. There are instances of bird trapping, hunting dogs being maltreated, the poisoning of cats as mentioned, and dogs tied in one place for their entire life. These are all cases of animal abuse and animal cruelty. And they are carried out according to this resident of Cyprus “on almost every area of the island on a massive scale”.
Cyprus is not the worst country in the world for animal cruelty or a lack of decent animal welfare. But it is far short of what it should be.
Another sad aspect of this story is that until 1960 Cyprus enjoyed 82 years of British control. Britain has some of the best animal welfare laws and enforcements in the world. Once again is not good enough but in the UK animal welfare laws rank highly. You might have thought that the British would have introduced some decent animal welfare law and enforcement into the island during those 82 years of management. Apparently not.
