Animals in Cyprus

It has been pointed out to us that goats and sheep are not wildlife, They are indeed domesticated. (Thanks for the message Andreas) Therefore this page has been born. Here you can see the noble goat, cat, dog, mouse, moth, dragonfly and sheep with distinction. If you have any contribution to make we will be pleased to receive it. We would like to hear from anyone who has befriended a local animal whether domesticated or wild but not if you have caged or tethered it. Below you will find our links and stories:
(and the wildlife page)

This is the alleged procedure for

Importing a cat or dog into Cyprus from OUTSIDE the EU

 1)  Obtain an import permit form from the veterinary department of the town you are staying in.

2)  Somebody from the veterinary department will come and inspect the premises where your cat or dog will live.

3)  When the arrival time of the animal is known the veterinary  department must be notified.

4) When the animal arrives a veterinary department vet will be at the airport to inspect the animal, if the animal arrives after 11 pm then it will have to stay at the airport until the next day for inspection.

5)  If the animal will stay in Cyprus indefinitely the fee is the equivalent of what was 167 CY pounds, now 285.336 Euros, so with the directive that prices should not rise during the changeover we presume that this will have been rounded up to 300 Euros. If your animal will only be here for a while then the fee is less, depending on how long it will stay.

6) For obtaining an import permit or any other information you can call the Larnaca veterinary department on 24 630275 or fax 24 630270.(+357 24 630275 from overseas)

(Please note that this information is provided as a guideline only, please make your own enquiries when moving an animal, this is not an official document.)

Importing a cat or dog into Cyprus from INSIDE the EU

If you are coming into Cyprus from an EU member country you may, with the proper paperwork, enter without quarantine restrictions, as long as your cat, dog or ferret has the appropriate passport and has been chipped.

To see the passport and read the rules and regulations, see here

Please note that animals may only be carried by certain airlines on certain routes.

A small fee may be payable

A reader said (August 2007)

'No one came to inspect our property, We were only charges £11.00 at the airport and they said it was not necessary to get a vet as they had all the correct documentation. They will also not keep a pet until the next days.'

That was because the animals were imported from an EU country I suspect. We apologise to anyone for whom this was not clear advice, we have tried to make it clearer now with a dividing line and separate heading, please read carefully.

For obtaining any information you can call the Larnaca veterinary department on 24 630275 or fax 24 630270.

(Please note that this information is provided as a guideline only, please make your own enquiries when moving an animal, this is not an official document.)

Dog Kennels & Catteries

Owning a dog or cat in Cyprus is easier than it once was. There is still the occasional poisoning by a disgruntled neighbour, now and then a man and his dog are run over for walking on the beaches (2008 - an actual case!), you will get shouted at for allowing your dog to cock his leg anywhere, but generally speaking it has become much more pet friendly. The vets have a much better attitude these days and the fact that many of them are more expensive than visiting the doctors may have something to do with why.

If you are going on holiday and wish to leave your dog in kennels for the duration it will cost you between about 12 to 20 Euros a day depending on the size of your friend. There are a growing number of kennels in Cyprus, especially now that we have opened up for foreigners on the business front. A good thing for dogs in particular and animals in general we hope.

If you are looking for a dog kennel or cattery near you, let us know where you live and when you want to go away and we will see if any of our contacts have space for that period. Please be aware that Christmas and Easter are very busy times and so booking early is a must.

Contact us here

Whoopdi dodo doo Dogs are allowed back on the beach.
- Where do you walk your dog? -

At last, some sense from a municipality.  Whist restrictions on walking your dogs are being made even more ridiculous in some places, for example the newly constructed pathway around the salt lake in Larnaca has now been designated a 'no go' area for dog owners, which means that there is nowhere that you can walk your dog legally other than the streets of the town! In Ayia Napa, the municipality has allowed a 200m stretch of beach which used to be used by goat herds for
'swimming their goats' to be accessed by dog owners. Thank goodness that some sense prevails.

 Until now it has been illegal for anyone to walk their dogs on any beach in Cyprus. Not only that, but parks all have the NO DOGS ALLOWED sign on them, if you try taking your dog down the road, people cross over to avoid you and should you walk near them with a largish dog, the disapproval and terror is a tangible thing. Of course it is totally inconvenient for most dog owners to drive to Ayia Napa to be able to to do the doggie walk, however bravo to the municipality for listening to public opinion and making a move in the right direction.

I can hear all you non dog owners out there now hissing with indignation as dogs are dirty creatures who foul the pathways. As a dog owner, I agree with you, however, as a license paying dog owner I ask you, 'where are the animals allowed to go? Surely reason in all things, the legislation should be about the fouling, not the usage.' If we were to put the legislation in place to fine dog owners for not cleaning up the mess their dogs make, that would be sensible. It is no big deal to carry a couple of plastic bags in your pocket and pick up after your dog, as long as there are a few bins provided in designated areas, so that we don't have to carry the smell home in the car. So come on the rest of Cyprus, show some dogmanity and give us some dog walking areas or rethink the legislation to punish those who leave a mess, not those who don't.

Where do you walk your dog? We would like to publish some of the more dog friendly areas in each of the sectors of Cyprus so that those new to the island, or even those of us who are not new but are fed up of being ' despised' can walk our dogs in peace and harmony.

Let us know here please.

  Animal Links and other stories

We are pleased to include these worthy animal links in Cyprus.
If you are looking for a pet, take a look at the classifieds

The first link is the Malcolm Cat Protection Society

The second is the Cyprus Association for the Protection and Care of
Animals, or C.A.P.C.A. Their new address is:
http://www.pawsdogshelter.com

Then we have The Nicosia Dog shelter
When I last visited in July 2003 I wanted to take at least 7 of the 150 dogs
in residence, but of course took only 1.

There was an issue with this whole story,
and if you are interested you can see it here

Donations are asked for here, I was particularly impressed with the way these dogs all seem to get on so well together.

Here are the Friends of the Cyprus Donkey, started by Patrick Skinner, his wife and various volunteers, a home for unwanted and retired Cyprus donkeys.
Visitors are welcome.

We are not sure if this comes under animals or wildlife,
but so as not to upset Andreas we will put it here, whereas the wild donkeys of the Karpas get their spot on the wildlife page.

Cats

The cats in Cyprus are numerous and have a delightful character on the whole. The are excellent mousers and also will kill snakes and other wildlife which may invade your home, including the huge field cockroaches. These are not the same as the smaller house cockroaches, they look similar but are in comparison much, much bigger. They fly in from the fields, come up from the drains. The authorities used to come every year and put DDT down the drains for the mosquito's, but they stopped doing it in about 1982.

     
Click the pictures to enlarge.
 

The many cats at Larnaca Marina are always looking for homes,
so if you are looking for a pussy cat or kitten, let us know

Also there is a section for dogs, cats and pets in general that are either for sale, looking for loving homes or wanted. See the Cyprus shopping pets page

Mice & Rodents

We recently (2007) had a small plague of mice in the house, and being pathetic, we could not kill them. They seemed to know that, and at the point where they were begging for chocolates whilst sitting on the keyboard of my laptop, we got out the humane Cyprus special mouse traps. We had 2 kinds, one was a round wire mesh affair with a hole in the middle, where the mice would go (after the chocolate) and couldn't get out, due to the sharp spears surrounding the hole at an angle. The other, a rat trap really, a rectangular box with a hook for cheese, which springs into action when disturbed, slamming shut the door. We were catching 2 at a time and when we had 6 or 8 we would take a trip to the countryside and introduce a small colony to their country cousins. Whilst we collected them they stayed in a small plastic hamster house.  The one below was totally tame.  We later heard that a new species of mouse had been discovered at the salt lake. hmmmm....

A town mouse, soon to be a salt lake citizen.

Click the picture to enlarge.

We did write to the university concerned to ask for more information about them, such as whether one answers to the name of Gerald, but so far have not had a reply - will keep you posted.

Our beautiful Dragonflies

In 2007 we had a bright red dragonfly in the garden who was so friendly and responsive that I had to quite change my mind about the communicatory skills of insects.
He or she made a home by the pool and was happily sitting in the point of a cactus/succulent from early morning until near dusk every day. I spoke to him (as one does) whenever I went to swim or water the garden and after about 2 weeks whilst taking a quick dip at lunchtime, I called to him and held up my hand. Luckily I had a witness, as probably no one would have believed that he flew over, landed on my finger, puffed his bottom up into the air and very obviously watched me closely through amazingly huge bulbous eyes.

The next day I was watering the spider plant in a hanging basket at dusk when he flew out from where he had obviously made his night time headquarters and punched me in the face! I was duly chastised.

He/she mated with a pretty blue wife or husband, so we were expecting purple babies to build our budding dragon fly family.

Some weeks later I went to water the plants and 4 dragonflies were hovering round. I have no idea if this is how evolution works, but these dragon flies had no fear of me, They seemed to want to make friends too and so creatures I once thought of as an alien species with as much chance of communicating with as ants, do seem to have a kinship of kind with humans. I must say that mosquito's have always shown a strange kind of telepathy, where as soon as one thinks of swatting them, they become extremely canny. (You have to think of blue cheese.)

There is good news, since lime sticking and amberopoulia was made illegal there has been a return of birds. I was struck by the wonderful birdsong one can now hear. :)