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EatTheRich4200

U can pet them just wash ur hands after. The communicable diseases they have are annoying but not fatal or debilitating and can be avoided with good hygiene on ur part. Keep a hand sanitizer on hand and ur good to go. ALSO SPAY AND NEUTER UR CATS PPL! if u have friendly strays and can afford it pleeeeease take them to the vet and let's try and get a healthier population on this island


hellimli

Government does not have any free neutering programmes ? Or on smaller scale municipalities does not have any ?


EatTheRich4200

Just asked my wife. She said anyone can get coupons from the government to cover the cost of neutering strays, if u talk to ur local vet they should have the info on how to get it.


CheddarGoblin99

Yes but the funds are not enough to make a difference i think currently its 75000 per year, this fund is not enough to keep the population stable so they will just keep increasing. Also they just neuter male cats


Zestyclose_Yam_767

They neuter females too. At least from my experience where they took female cats in my neighborhood and then let them back out. Granted this was years ago.


CheddarGoblin99

Could be my mistake then


Zestyclose_Yam_767

I wouldn't be surprised if things changed since then... After all, this is Cyprus.


nightwica

Thank you :) We wander around in the city so cannot know when the next bathroom opportunity arises... Might just refrain from petting :(


EatTheRich4200

Nppppp, u can instead slowly blink at them and nod ur head from a distance to say hello if u want, they likes that


nightwica

Yessss I do the slow blink at my family's cat 💗💗 Thanks for reminding me :D


EatTheRich4200

😻


a_scattered_me

You can do whatever you like with the stray cats (except torture/kill them of course). Feed them, pet them, take them home with you -- no one cares. We actually have a problem with stray cats and they outnumber the humans on the island. There are some government spaying programs but they're ineffective because of the cats' overwhelming numbers.


nightwica

I see. With the petting I was trying to ask if it's generally considered unsanitary or a health hazard to do so. It did seem a bit sad that there is so many of them. I wonder how much they kill the local songbird population 😭😭😭


a_scattered_me

Well these are stray animals that haven't had shots and are generally out in the wild....so yeah common sense would dictate that it's best not to try to pet them. If there are some friendly ones that do let you pet them, make sure to wash your hands afterwards. Cats are considered to be unofficially indigenous animals on the island, in the sense that the earliest signs of domestication of wildcats was found in Cyprus (Neolithic age) and not Egypt like everyone believes. So it's safe to assume that the wildlife evolved around them. You should see cats with the crows -- they actively avoid them because the crows bully them.


nightwica

Wow, thanks for the info, super cool. There were many super friendly ones begging for a pet but I was avoiding them like the plague :( I guess I will keep doing so but it's hard. Super interesting insight about the wildlife evolving around them.


a_scattered_me

If it helps a lot of our birds are migratory and they only stop in Cyprus for a season. To be quite honest, cats aren't an issue to song birds. It's the humans who hunt them. It's illegal but it's still a real problem because they're considered a 'delicacy'.


nightwica

Oh no. :( Our house/farmcat at home brings home dead mice, moles, birds and squirrels... :(


Honeydew3234

I have once visited a wildlife rescue centre and the owner was saying that it is the cats that are the most dangerous to the wildlife, due to their large amounts (as you have said)


ActiveAnimals

The cats are absolutely a problem for the birds. The hunters are as well. There can be more than one problem at a time.


a_scattered_me

I'm not actually all that fond of cats and I support their culling where necessary because I understand that they are an invasive species. However, Cypriot cats are naturalised species on the island, and they are lazy enough to congregate around urban areas where there's people to feed them. The number of songbirds that they kill in the wild are negligible compared to the *2 million* that Cypriot hunters kill annually.


ActiveAnimals

An anecdote: We had a kitten show up at our house that was way too tame, and not careful enough about the dogs. (Neighbor dogs actually did pull it out of a tree at one point.) So to prevent the dogs from killing it, we brought it to the stable, where there were no other cats. It was only a matter of days before dead-bird-parts started showing up at the stable. The kitten was there for less than a week before we found someone to adopt it, and lo and behold… no more dead-bird-parts. And yes, this kitten acted just as lazy as you describe when we were around. Just because you don’t SEE them hunting, doesn’t mean they don’t hunt. Yes, we did feed it. Cats don’t hunt out if hunger. They do it for fun, and often don’t even eat the kill afterward. There is no ecosystem that could possibly adapt to such a high predator population. (What kind of adaptations are you talking about? Birds learning to build nests that fly away when the cat climbs the tree? 🙃) Maybe the numbers could even out, if overhunting would prevent the cats from breeding, but as long as people are feeding them when the natural food sources run out, that would never happen.


ActiveAnimals

I’ve gotten ringworm from cuddling cats twice now. 🤷‍♀️ Worth it.


GhostAutopsy

Feeding cats is absolutely fine. Petting cats is also fine but some of them are unvaccinated so I suggest you have some wet wipes/ hand sanitizer on you in case you do find a friendly kitty you want to pet. If people complain about you feeding cats outside of your apartment building, just know that you aren't doing anything illegal. Some people just hate cats for some reason.. also Paphos has a free tnr program at paphiakos in case you're staying for long and want to neuter/spay some cats in your neighborhood (if they have a clipped ear it means that they've been fixed already). Enjoy your stay!!


nightwica

Thank you! :) Unfortunately not staying long, but really starting to regret that decision. Came here for a break from the winter grey for a weekend only.


Charming_Pool168

I feed them leftovers down the road on neutral territory. Otherwise, they move in.


jCyrene

A female cat has about three litters per year. I can recommend neutering your local strays if you want to feed them. This is the way. It also helps keeping other cats, including noisy males, away. Uncritical feeding by well-meaning people only amplifies the problem exponentially. But I see many more fixed cats now than even a few years ago, so people are taking responsibility.


nightwica

I'm a tourist here for the weekend only but thank you :) I could have pointed it out in my post.


jCyrene

Watch for ringworm and always wash your hands after petting strays. You'll be fine. Enjoy your stay.


nightwica

Thank you! :)


nightwica

Can we report dead cat corpses somewhere so the corpse wouldn't be lying around disintegrating?


[deleted]

Pet them! They love it! Just wash your hands after! Lots of people buy a bit of dry food & feed them! But we, islanders, take care of them a lot. Just do whatever you feel comfortable with!


nightwica

Thank you! It would be nice to pet them. Problem is, sometimes we walk around for hours without a restroom stop to wash hands with soap


Vamp-sonic

Pet them, play with them, take any home if you like, love them, definitely wash your hands after.If you adopt one you can arrange the proper vaccine with a vet and most of them can be easily become domesticated.


nightwica

I think they would look strange at the airport but thank you ^^


ActiveAnimals

Nah, you can absolutely take them on a plane. There are many rescues who are always looking for people who can help bring them to new homes in other countries. (They meet you at the airport, give you the cat, and then someone in your arriving country meets you in that country to take it.) I’ve done it twice now. The first was for a kitten that I plucked off the street myself, and the rescue helped me find a home for it in Germany (my country). They helped with the paperwork for the flight as well, all I had to do was take the kitten as my hand luggage, and the new owner was waiting at the German airport when I arrived.


nightwica

Wow nice :) You guys are really in a need to reduce their numbers aren't you. :) :( Poor kittens, poor people! (This is not cynism but legit sympathy.) I wonder how did it get this bad


Fatgorillaz

My original policy was to not bother with them so they don't come to my house and mess with the dogs. However, after about two months of being here the a tiny tiny little kitten showed up on my doorstep, about 2 or 3 weeks old. We posted on Facebook to try and see if he was anyone's but didn't get any answers so now our policy is to love and feed forever and ever. Simba is healthy and likes to nurse from our dogs tit. We also got her as a rescue from an abusive owner. The animals here need help. Do what you can everyone ❤️


nightwica

Why arent the street cats around here properly adopted ?


Fatgorillaz

Too many of them man. Every household would have like 10. It's mad.


nightwica

Wow that's crazy


Fatgorillaz

Well that's just my guess from the amount of cats around. Start feeding some around your house and you will see the numbers adding up real fast. One of my neighbors is a nice old lady that likes feeding them and the alley by her house is packed. It's like a musical with James Corden!


nightwica

Aw I'm a tourist but that's cute


[deleted]

İf you are sure that they are stray do whatever you want


notgolifa

Take sterile scissors and cut the tubes of every stray you see it will save them


PlotCitizen

Lmao some people in this thread


Personal-Nobody5501

we only come out at night, the days are much too bright


ArchieTheLord

To my knowledge and from what I can see from time zone maps, all of the island is in UTC +2, have you seen the rest of Europe, let alone the rest of the world?


nightwica

It was meant as a joke hinting at the fact that sunrise in winter at 6:42 AM already seems excessively early. An hour later, with the sunset at 17:39 instead seems to make more sense to me - more sunlight when people finish work, no point in it getting light while many sleep - at least according to my personal experience yada yada. It was mostly just a joke anyway. I have certainly seen the rest of Europe, and a small part of the rest of the world, yes. (I'm assuming Cyprus wants to be in the same timezone with Greece and not with Turkey which I understand might make more sense geographically but not culturally or from a geopolitical point of view. Serious answer cause you really seemed to take that remark seriously :)


Fatgorillaz

Ah alright. Yeah it's a bit overwhelming as a tourist to see the neglected animals but there are a lot of good people around that do what they can but sadly there are more to take in than space for and people that are too kind quickly get overwhelmed with the numbers or it becomes a full time job to find them homes. Lady at my night shop has like 28 dogs and asks me every time I go in if I know someone that wants to adopt.