Dog shelters in Cyprus are overflowing in what some volunteers are calling a crisis caused by the abandonment of dogs adopted during Covid, as well as complications arising from Brexit.
“The shelters are filled to the brim,” said Monica Mitsidou of Dog Rescue Cyprus.
Many people would have adopted dogs during the Covid-19 pandemic “when they shouldn’t have,” Mitsidou told Cyprus News Agency, calling the situation “unprecedented”.
During Cyprus’ toughest restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus in 2020 and early 2021, walking dogs was one of the few reasons people were allowed out of their homes.
Evita Charalambous, a PAWS (Cyprus Association for the Protection and Care of Animals) volunteer, blamed “the economic situation” and Brexit for fewer adoptions and said Cyprus faces a “massive problem”.
But she also said people wouldn’t spay their dogs and pointed to difficulties in finding pet-friendly homes.
Volunteers say demand for Cypriot dog adoptions has fallen, particularly in the UK, which is usually a top destination for pooches from the eastern Mediterranean island.
“Brexit has hit us enormously,” said Constantina Constantinou, a volunteer at the non-profit organization Saving Pound Dogs Cyprus (SPDC).
“The bureaucracy is much more complicated,” she told AFP, and the dogs’ travel costs have also risen sharply, making it “much more difficult” for Brits to take in dogs from EU member Cyprus.
More than 3,000 dogs are estimated to be in shelters across Cyprus.
On the outskirts of the capital Nicosia, a husky with a purple and black collar stared out of its pen at a sanctuary run by SPDC while other dogs nearby barked or pawed the ground.
– “Not the solution” –
At another shelter outside of Nicosia, run by Simba Animal Aid Cyprus, several dogs played together in a large enclosure while others sought a shady retreat from the summer heat or licked water from a bucket.
Andreas Tsavellas, 43, of Simba, said the number of strays “is constantly increasing” due to “the economic crisis and other factors”.
“We get five to 20 dogs a week – which the municipalities find as strays on the street and then bring them to us,” he told AFP.
But he downplayed the idea that people were adopting dogs as an excuse to go out at the height of Covid-19 restrictions, saying: “We don’t have enough data to prove that.”
“We’ve always had instances of abandonment, not just during the pandemic,” he said.
Volunteers have urged authorities to enforce animal welfare laws and curb illegal breeding and dumping, often by hunters.
“The government needs to make serious decisions … and take action to make neutering (of dogs) a law,” said the SPDC’s Constantinou, adding that more controls are needed when dogs are imported.
Others said the current canine dilemma highlighted a different issue.
“Sending (dogs) abroad was not a solution,” PAWS’ Charalambous told the Cyprus News Agency.
“We’ve essentially swept the issue under the rug.”
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