Cyprus cats out in the cold as pandemic bites
Rise in abandonment of feline friends as pet owners leave island due to coronavirus
At a cat sanctuary set in picturesque hills near Paphos, on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, volunteers are grappling with a surge in abandonments they blame on the coronavirus pandemic.
“There has been an increase of about 30 per cent of previously owned, loved (and) looked-after cats that have
been left behind” as people depart the island, lamented Dawn Foote, 48, who runs the Tala Cats rescue centre.
Some among Cyprus’s large expatriate and dual resident
communities have retreated home as the economic squeeze has tightened, she noted. “People, at the moment, have just got no money, and it’s expensive to get a cat to another country — you’ve got passports to pay for, you’ve got transport carriers to pay,” Foote said.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she told AFP, saying abandonments were rising islandwide, in part also due to locals no longer being able to afford pet food or vet bills.
Abandoned cats just “don’t know how to survive,” Foote said. “A lot of them want to give up.” The government imposed a nationwide lockdown from January 10, Cyprus’s second since the pandemic began, after Covid-19 infections surged.
Nowhere to eat
The closure of restaurants — choice locations for feline scavengers — has further compounded the misery for many of the island’s feline residents according to an animal welfare organisation.
Meanwhile, the rehousing of animals, many of whom find their “forever homes” abroad, has become more difficult, a trend confirmed to
AFP by a dog sanctuary near the capital Nicosia.