Cat lover paradise: This small island in the Mediterranean has a population of 1 million felines

Visitors to Cyprus will encounter cats literally everywhere on the island. In fact, besides its pleasant climate, beautiful beaches and its rich history, these feline inhabitants are one of the attractions.

However, this island nation of cat-lovers has a problem, the feral feline population has exploded to the point where there is now at least one per human resident, around 1 million, and perhaps hundreds of thousands more. This has caused concern about the feral cats’ impact on the island’s ecosystem as well as their own wellbeing.

Increased funding for sterilization not seen as enough

Authorities have put in place a sterilization plan but it is not keeping up with the burgeoning feline population. Heeding calls, the Environment Minister Maria Panayiotou has announced that the government would triple the 100,000-euro-per-year program.

While that was welcome news, Charalambos Theopemptou, chairman of the Parliamentary Environment Committee is warning about just relying on money to solve the problem. “There has to be a plan. We can’t just go ahead with sterilizations without having a plan,” he told the Associated Press.

Under the government’s current program, the funds are handed over to local municipalities which pay private veterinarians to sterilize feral cats. These are brought in by animal conservation groups.

However, this hasn’t been working to slow the growth of the feline population as feral cats are hard to catch and the numbers are small, especially among female cats.

President of the Veterinary Association, Demetris Epaminondas, told the news outlet that the surging population is the result of unchecked breeding, especially in dense urban areas. Additionally, thanks to the generosity of strangers caring for them, more kittens are surviving birth.

The cat population could be brought under control within four years

Epaminondas recommends that all the diverse plans be unified and authories need to cut through the red tape. He envisions putting the private clinics at the forefront and let them offer free-of-charge neutering.

He says that “people will be more motivated” to get their female cats neutered, which is happening to too few of them, compounding the problem.

The Veterinary Association has also proposed identifying major concentrations of feral cats so that authorities can organize round ups and then have them sterilized.

Epaminondas would also like to see a fund set up where businesses and the public could donate to help finance the effort offsetting what the state has to bear.

He thinks that putting these measures into place could see the feline population be brought under control within four years.

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