By Peri Sualp …
Last Saturday we took our 10 month old female cat Daisy for spaying (that’s a new word I’ve learnt. It is used for female sterilization). I’ve cried a lot thinking she deserves having babies and we shouldn’t take her fertility from her without her consent.
Besides it would be wonderful to have couple of fluffy kittens running around. On the other hand she would be in pain God knows for how many days, plus lots of needles… I wasn’t even considering the weird shaving of her beautiful long hair.
My begging and crying didn’t help our poor Daisy. She had her operation but she spent the whole day and late night sleeping so she didn’t feel any pain. The next day she was able to eat and go to her litter box. Mostly she sat or slept in her bed. She seemed painless (I guess!). But on the third day, she was back to normal – we even had to put back ‘beware of the cat’ signs!!
After seeing it wasn’t really difficult for her and remembering a couple of visits to crowded animal shelters, I am convinced that cats and dogs should be sterilized. Not only the females but the males should be neutered as well in order to keep the balance (neutering is another word I’ve learnt and that one is used for male sterilization).
I see many stray dogs and cats out in the streets, even in deserted areas such as mountains and at the seaside. Unfortunately we can’t keep and take care of all of them. The shelters are loaded up and there is no room for new ones. The number is out of control! A female dog or cat can give birth three times a year. If she has four puppies or kittens every time she gives birth and then after one year these babies breed and each has 
four and they grow and continue breeding on and on and on….the number comes to thousands in a few years; even if only half of them survive and the half of that half are females! You do the maths! It’s really outrageous!
Our furry friends who live outside are also bound to face unfortunate things when they don’t have anyone to take care of them. Diseases, illnesses, wild animal attacks, mean people, injuries, car accidents are only a few I can think of. There are difficult weather conditions as well, either too cold or too hot and they need shelter to survive. Besides it’s almost impossible for our four legged cute friends to find regular food and water as well – they might even starve to death! As you see there are many fatal issues going on outside.
Certainly there are many good people around who try to help these souls by feeding or taking care of them but considering the number of the cats and dogs compared to the number of animal lovers around, the struggle for help seems absolutely insufficient. The solution? I wish we could convince all the people in the world to be animal lovers and let them take care at least those around them but I guess this is an impossible dream! So should we put a number of cats and dogs down and take good care of the ones we can handle? If the number of our fluffy friends around is less, they will be taken better care of and they sure will be more precious.
No matter how unfriendly it may seem to have your cat or dog sterilized, this is the best method for their wellbeing. At the end of the day, we can’t spay or neuter all of them right? I am pretty sure that there’ll still be plenty of gorgeous kittens and puppies to love around that are enough for everyone…. However, if our country implemented a project of neutering/spaying for all of the street animals this would soon result in the stray population decreasing and there would not be so many of the horrendous cases that we see on the social media, especially dogs, in such a pitiful state.
We definitely should, I have six cats, they are all neutered and sterilised, they are very healthy and happy, unlike some of the homeless cats i see. maybe there should be some education in schools about this as well as about leaving rubbish about!!
Thank you Eva for your views
Spaying and neutering of male and female cat’s and dog’s should be enforced by the government for all house pets and the unfortunate street animals. This is the only way forward. As is micro chipping and registration which i will go into later.
Many people do have the mind set that it takes away the rights of the animal to spay and neuter them here in Cyprus. In an ideal world that could possibly be a consideration but we are not living in an ideal world and much less so here in the TRNC. It is an extremely blinkered view to say spaying or neutering an animal takes away it’s rights yet to watch these same people allow thousands upon thousands be starved, abused, poisoned, left abandoned, shot or killed by other means, left dying of disease and lack of care, road traffic accidents,thrown away like rubbish when they are surplus to requirements, caged or chained gives an animal their rights is beyond comprehension.
The incredible amount of these unfortunate animals, as mentioned above, here in the TRNC is staggeringly overwhelming for such a tiny land mass and human population. The government and the people must move with the times for the betterment of the animals and the country as a whole. Should micro chipping and licence be enforced alongside of spaying and neutering it would not only solve the problem, as has been proved in many other countries in the world, butt would be financially sustainable if managed correctly. If so called animal breeders or the ones saying let’s just have the one litter wished to breed then their licence should be high,very high and anyone not having licences or their animal micro chipped should be fined highly. As it is micro chipping, as set out by the government, is not implemented even by their own system.
Tourism which must be one of the highest forms of revenue to the country has been dramatically reduced because of the amount of strays and starving animals here. I know of many people and reports of tourists saying they will never return because of the dire situation. I also know of many people who were previously living here that have left because they could not cope with all the sadness surrounding these animals. These people spread the word and mud sticks which should also be another incentive for the government to pull out all the stops.
Spaying and neutering really is the only way forward and whilst compounds remove some from the streets,where conditions can be dismal, the long term imprisonment is not a solution and often places them in worse conditions than they were out there in the street,
I applaud you Peri Sualp on your article and your resolve to overcome the doubts you had. You did the right thing. Hopefully others will follow your lead. Thank you.
If anyone is in any doubt whatsoever of the thousands of abused animals in need please visit us, Hope4Pets, H4P, on the link below. H4P may also be able to help you with our neutering and spaying scheme. It may hopefully change your mind because we and others are currently fighting a loosing battle on behalf of all these animals rights.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/857391277610023/