Concerns over health of native Cyprus cattle

Cows indigenous to Cyprus are starting to appear malnourished in their protected area at Akrotiri, the Animal Party said on Saturday, calling on authorities to act immediately to save them.

The cows are a protected species along with the whole Akrotiri wetland area since 2015, the party said.

This project was funded by the Darwin Initiative through the UK government (Darwin Plus, the Overseas Territories Environment and Climate Fund) and led by the Cyprus Ornithological Society in collaboration with the Akrotiri Environmental Centre and RSPB/BirdLife in the UK. The aim of the project was to improve the efficiency of grazing for the native Cyprus cattle. The animals are not tethered but confined within fencing.

According to a statement, the apparently malnourished cows was reported by the Cyprus Animal Party to the Cyprus Ornithological Association and despite “their diligent and continuous efforts to inform the guardians of the cows”, it seems to have fallen on “deaf ears”.

“The Animal Party immediately calls on all stakeholders to immediately examine and investigate this issue, because in the end this situation does not honour anyone, stressing that many of our compatriots visit Livadi as well as many tourists.”

In the past, the hardy Cyprus cattle constituted much of the muscle behind laborious agricultural work, dragging ploughs and tilling the soil.

Their population had plummeted, but a handful of dedicated cattle breeders, as well as a governmental subsidy programme, have allowed the numbers to rise again.