By Carole Widdison…….
On Wednesday February 14th the Education team, Maggie Smith, Carole Widdison, Carol Easton and of course Annie, Maggie`s Cyprus Terrier, visited the English school of Kyrenia at Bellapais to speak to the after school club Kyrenia St. Hilarion Interacts.
It is run by Naran Gemicioğlu of the Kyrenia St. Hilarion Rotary club and senior student Tanel who had already organised a visit by the club to KAR rescue centre in 2017. Tanel had previously done some volunteer work at the centre.
Maggie started by telling them Annie`s story, an example of a poor dog found on the streets who now has a very happy and loving home.
Carol explained to the students about the Five Freedoms, which are essential for the wellbeing of all animals, but especially for cats and dogs. Freedom from:
Hunger and thirst, discomfort, pain, injury and disease, fear and distress and freedom to play and to enjoy companionship.
Carole asked the students why there are so many cats and dogs on the streets. The following discussion also included what could be done to reduce the number particularly the need for animals to be neutered. The students were told about cat catching by KAR, the new centre built by Girne Belediyesi and their neutering and tagging with blue tags. The students were also amazed at the numbers of cats that could result (in theory) from two original unneutered cats – 420 000 after 7 years!
Maggie concluded the talk by introducing the ‘Let them live book’ and explaining briefly the philosophy behind it. Each student was given one so that they could read it and make up their own mind what is best for the dogs.
The students were very interested and had some very useful discussions which hopefully will spur them on to do their part by ensuring that, whenever possible, all animals experience the benefit from the concept of the Five Freedoms.
