Filenews 3 June 2021 - by Michalis Hatzivasilis
The establishment of five regional animal shelters, one per province, to be managed by the local authorities, provides for a plan prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture and forwarded for consultation to Municipalities, interior ministry and prefects.
The aim of the project is to discharge the volunteer groups and at the same time the stray animals will gain home and care. According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to strengthen the local authorities to proceed with the establishment of large shelters in the model of what the municipalities of Greater Nicosia operate in Kokkinotrimithia, the ministry will contribute financially with a budget of €750,000 over a three-year period.
As explained in "F" by a competent official, today there are two kinds of shelters: the voluntary shelters founded by animal welfare organizations (operating around 15 pancyprians) and the local ones managed by the municipalities. The shelters of animal welfare organizations have reached their limits, since they are overcrowded and work with adoptions, either in Cyprus or abroad. The state supports them financially with annual sponsorship, and recently they were given an emergency grant to upgrade their infrastructure.
The local shelters managed by the municipalities deal primarily with stray animals, they are treated and, if necessary due to their condition, they are euthanized. After seeing the problems of voluntary organisations in particular, he decided to help the local authorities with the creation of large regional shelters, one per province and perhaps even a sixth for mountainous Nicosia.
On a proposal from Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis, the Council of Ministers authorised him to draw up a plan on this issue. Several contacts have already been made with the municipalities, the Prefects and the Ministry of the Interior, which is why a special plan has been prepared on how these shelters will operate, with emphasis on the adoption of the animals they will host. When the municipalities turn on the green light, then the Ministry of Agriculture will give the sponsorship to build the shelters, after they have put safeguards in place to function properly, without interfering with the way they operate. In these shelters will end up those animals that do not actually have chips, while the rest that they currently have, but their owners abandoned them, will be asked to receive them and the 'owners' perhaps even suffer the consequences because they abandoned them.
It is noted that the day before yesterday the Ministries of Agriculture and Justice signed a co-operation protocol between the Police and the Veterinary Office to examine complaints concerning animal abuse. In fact, in June there will be a hotline to file complaints of animal neglect or abuse.
