Petition urges vet services to boost cat neutering programme

A petition has been launched urging the veterinary services to increase the annual budget for the neutering of cats by six, as there are “more cats than humans on this island”.

“Stray cats in Cyprus are everywhere. From the seaside, to restaurants, neighbourhoods, they are everywhere. And they are constantly dying from road accidents, disease and malnourishment,” Miguel Yiallourides, who launched the petition said.

An average female cat can give birth every two to three months, to anywhere from one to 12 kittens.

As of 2020, Cyprus officially has 1.2 million residents but there are more cats than humans on this island, close to 1.5 million felines based on an unofficial estimate, the petition says.

However, the current neutering programmes managed to neuter roughly 1,500 cats per year, which is an “extremely small fraction of the total cat population,” Yiallourides said.

The budget for that has been an annual of €75,000.

“The goal of this petition is to increase the budget to at least 500,000 EUR (6x times more) to increase the amount of cats being neutered on a yearly basis,” he added.

So far, more than 25,450 people have signed the petition, with the aim to get to 35,000 signatures.

“Be the change you want to see in this world,” Yiallourides added.

Sign the petition at https://www.change.org/p/increase-budget-for-cat-neutering-program-in-cyprus