By Stephanie Harrison – Croft …..
Hope 4 Pets
Spaying and neutering of male and female cats and dogs 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 its 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 number 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. If micro chipping and licence was enforced alongside of spaying and neutering it would not only solve the problem, as has been proved in many other countries in the world, but 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 heavily. 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 Peri Sualp on your earlier article (click here) and the resolve to overcome the doubts they had in spaying their cat. They did the right thing. Hopefully others will follow their lead.
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 losing battle on behalf of all these animals rights.
Website Hope 4 Pets
Facebook: Hope 4 Pets North Cyprus (Is a TRNC registered charity) with 5,293 members.
