Every Summer we take our family holiday in Cyprus, we fell in love with the island when we married there in 1999 and for those of you who know me personally you’ll know that one of our hopes is to one day live there.
Cyprus is a beautiful island, the people wonderfully welcoming and well, the sun shines for the majority of the year….what’s not to love! When it comes to animal welfare though there is definite progress to be made, it isn’t unusual for a dog to be chained up in a cage for it’s whole life.
Paralimni Dog Pound is the saviour of many of these beautiful animals, as well as mistreated animals there are also many dogs abandoned…..during the week we were there 3 puppies were rescued from the side of the road covered in ticks, resulting in anaemia, 4 dogs left the pound to go to new homes and 3 dogs were brought to the pound. Some of these beautiful animals have been there over 6 months and whilst the volunteers are amazing, there is such a limit to what they can do. Essentially they make sure the dogs’ basic needs are met; they are provided with clean shelter, food, water and if there are enough extra volunteers turn up (usually holiday makers just like us) then every dog will get a short walk in the morning. Still 22 hours chained up or in a cage is really no fun, what they really need is a family to love them and play with them.
