Sirius Shelter Cyprus
About three years ago, there was no single animal shelter in Limassol and surroundings. There were just so called municipality pounds: These are orphanages of the municipalities, were dogs are kept for about 10 – 14 day under terrible circumstances. If no one claims tenure, they are euthanized! And usually no one comes to adopt them.
That’s why the above mentioned Sirius Shelter has been founded by a private animal rights initiative. An empty hall has been rehired and the first dogs were accommodated.
Since that, just a few crates and some miserable outside enclosures could be built. All because of lack of time and missing support.
Every incoming Euro is spent for feed and to pay the costs for the veterinary. Euthanization is only done in hopeless cases.
As you can clearly see, nearly everything is missing.
Only a garden hose, some buckets and a brush are in stock. But there is even no toilet for the helpers.
Because of lack of helpers, 1 or 2 animal rights activists rotate to supply the animals. They clean as good as it is possible, though there are actually no discharge troughs.
Everything has to be swept up from the craggy concrete floor and then be disposed. Then everything has to be cleaned up. This is really hard work. The putrid smell is even for humans unbearable.
First by excrement and then by disinfectant. After just an hour, the people get headache and have to breathe fresh air. How cruel must that be for the snoopies, which cannot dodge it, except that they can rotate in coming to the enclosure outside?
What these animal welfare activists achieve there every day under contrarious circumstances deserves our highest respect. This is one of the positive sites in animal welfare. You always get to know people, who do not only talk but selflessly help and assist the dogs as good as they can.
The Sirius shelter is completely overcrowded and urgently needs donations. Here in Cyprus it happens very often, that a Poodle breeder breaks up his breed and stands in front of the door with 20 Poodles.
But also all these British people, who now leave the island because of financial reasons and bring their dogs, which live with them from their birth on, to this terrible place. It is especially for those dogs an agony and some of them die, because of broken heart. It is just not understandable for them, why their owner left them, why it has to be at this terrible place and has to miss its owner.
Even yesterday, we found one of these terrible places, where Cypriot “hunters” keep their dogs: 22 hounds on closest area. The owner has been imprisoned because of aiding and abetting in murdering. Would dogs would miserably starved and died of thirst, if we did not find them by accident.
One of the dogs was already dead…
The animals are sick, laced with thousands of ticks. Two days ago, we again found a dead dog, but we couldn’t get it out, because the pride defended its prey animal… Yesterday, it was completely gone.
We could free a dying dog out of the kennel and supply it medically with the most needed things. We named him Schröder and try to help him to survive, but there is actually not much hope. What shall we do?
Taking all these sick dogs and bring them to the shelter…would be far too dangerous, because they have contagious diseases.
Press charges against the “hunter”…would mean for us to be lumbered with the Cypriot mafia and all our dogs would be dead.
But what we experience every day, is just despairing for us. And so often the situation seems not to have a solution. Just thanks to the support of animal loving people and some small successes, we reached, we are able to continue with our work.
Every rehomed dog, every pictures sent by its new owners and shows us how happy this dog now is…is a motivation for us. For our work, we urgently need donations to have to possibility to furthermore support the Sirius shelter.
The people working there do everything, to help the dogs feel comfortable. The place might to be terrible but for a lot of dogs, it offers refuge and protection.
Only thanks to donations, we can improve the situation of the shelter…
Our contact details:
e-mail-address: s.vonbueren(phu)surfeu.ch
bank details (please state “Projekt Sirius” as reference):
Nord - Ostsee Sparkasse
Zypernhunde e. V.
account no.: 130 15 192
bank code: 217 500 00
IBAN: DE11217500000013015192
BIC: NOLADE21NOS