‘Get diseased strays off the streets’,

A LAPTA vet has urged the collection of stray dogs off the streets, to try to stem the spread of deadly distemper in the area.

About 50 animals — some of them pets which had not had their annual vaccination — are said to have tested positive for the disease at Lapta’s Garfield veterinary clinic since August, and around half have died.

The outbreak follows an epidemic which killed hundreds of dogs across the country since April, put rescue kennels into lockdown, and was also recorded as having been transmitted into the wildlife population.

Garfield clinic vet Fuat Gülyaz said the lack of a local shelter would hamper efforts to curb the distemper outbreak, and told Cyprus Today it was the local municipality’s responsibility to tackle the situation.

“This disease will not stop spreading if the stray dogs that are causing it to spread so quickly are not collected off the streets and put into a shelter where they can be treated,” he said.

“Otherwise pets, especially those that have missed vaccinations, which are taken on walks around the area will be able to come into contact with and catch the disease.”

Mr Gülyaz said they had taken the initiative to catch and treat some strays in the area, but this was difficult in the case of aggressive animals, and that left them able to “run around and spread the illness”.

“We have informed the authorities and hope action will be taken as soon as possible.”

Kyrenia Animal Rescue (KAR), whose own Arapköy shelter lost some 200 dogs to distemper earlier in the year, said they had received several reports of the disease in the Lapta area, and one of their own volunteers had found a sick stray which tested positive at the Garfield clinic.

They advised owners to consult their vets and make sure their pets’ inoculations were up to date.

Lapta Mayor Mustafa Aktuğ said they had no information on the local outbreak but would investigate, and were looking for land for a shelter to provide a long-term solution to the problem of strays.