Why do we need to Home Dogs?

Dogs increase the quality of life by giving focus to the day. The daily walking routine can have tremendous health benefits. Health studies have shown that owning a dog can lower a person’s blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. Dogs are non-judgmental and offer unconditional love as well as being entertaining and offer the opportunity to increase social interaction. Dog owners frequently talk about little else.  So why are there so many dogs needing homes?

There are many dog shelters in Cyprus, all bursting at the seams. There are the ones run by charities such as PAWS, P.A.R.C., and Paphiakos, and in addition there are the municipal shelters and of course a variety of private facilities.

All of the shelters attempt to provide for unwanted, abandoned, lost and unloved dogs. They arrive at these shelters in depressingly large numbers and in a variety of conditions ranging from barely alive to fit and healthy. There are also a large number of puppies of all types which are dumped in cardboard boxes. The reasons why dogs end up at shelters fall into these main categories:

• Simple abandonment – very often of hunting dogs at the end of the hunting season in March; perhaps the dog has not proved to be a good hunter or is simply too inconvenient to keep until next season. The dogs are found wandering around scavenging for food and water and frankly can be a considerable nuisance and are brought in either by the municipalities or by well wishers when they have grown so weak that they can no longer avoid capture. The shelters will endeavour to bring them around but frequently the damage caused by weeks of malnourishment and dehydration is too great to overcome.
• Inconvenience is another main cause. These dogs are usually brought in to the charitable or private shelters, often by a third party, with the stories of “our landlord won’t let us keep a dog”, “it barks too much”, “it doesn’t get on with our other dog or child etc”, “our neighbours have threatened to poison it”. All these are valid reasons, if true, to try to find another home for the dog, but the dog shelter should not be the first place they come to get rid of their problem. Training can frequently resolve the behavioural difficulties giving rise to the problem but bear in mind training applies to both owner and dog!
• Then we have the perennial “we have to go back to the UK/leaving Cyprus”. Until 2012 it wasn’t so easy to take a dog from Cyprus to the UK.  However, the restrictions between EU countries have been relaxed and now a dog can travel to the UK provided it has had all the necessary tests and vaccinations, details of which can be found on the DEFRA site www.defra.gov.uk – it just takes a bit of planning.  For toher countries please check the internet for their regulations.  The costs involved are not low, but when you take on a dog here in Cyprus and know you may not be staying for life, you need to start planning and saving from day one.  Your dog is a part of your family and you wouldn’t leave one of your children behind!
• There are of course always the unwanted puppies. What a surprise? The reproductive process is a complete mystery to some it would seem. There are cultural reasons why some Cypriots oppose neutering but for the rest of us it is highly recommended.

However, having said all that, there will always be a need for facilities to receive unwanted or lost dogs. Much as we many wish it, we will never succeed in reforming everyone’s behaviour towards dogs much as we may campaign and educate. We need to accept that there is no such thing as a shelter with unlimited capacity. There has, therefore, to be a balance between dogs coming in and dogs going out.

There are three ways in which dogs can go out:

• Natural death – this thankfully is very low even when you take into account the odd fatal dog fight.
• Euthanasia – as harsh as it may seem there are some dogs that have to go because of behaviour problems or simply poor health.  But sadly also they have to go just to make room for new dogs coming in for example in the municipal shelters they have a policy of not keeping a dog for more than 14 days otherwise they would be bursting at the seams.
• Homing – This is the whole raison d’etre of this organisation. The more dogs we can home the more room there will be for new dogs in the shelters and consequently a reduction in Euthanasia. What is needed is more people who are prepared to home a dog from the Shelter. This is aimed at everyone out there who does not have a dog and is missing out on one of life’s great pleasures. Owning a dog can contribute such a great deal to the owners’ wellbeing. As has been said before, there are huge benefits to be derived having a loved dog in your life.

The shelters have a large number of dogs of all sizes and descriptions. There is at least one dog to suit all tastes and usually far more than one. Remember that each dog that is homed makes room for another dog in need of care.

How can you help?

Fostering

Why do we need foster homes?

We need to take dogs that are waiting to travel to their new homes out of the shelters as soon as possible. This is helpful for the dog to become used to being in a home environment and makes space for the shelter to take in another dog in need.

Normally, we only place dogs with foster carers if they have a definite home. It is not good for a dog’s psychological wellbeing to be taken out of a shelter and then returned to it.

If a dog is going abroad there is a time interval between the chosen dog finding a home and being ready to travel. This time interval results from the varying needs of countries with regard to vaccinations etc.

It means that we can tell you, our foster family, approximately how long you will keep the dog.  Sometimes it can be as little as a week or two up to perhaps a couple of months depending on the readiness of the dog to travel.

We will make a reasonable contribution to the costs of fostering.
If you could help with this most valuable part of our work please either contact us via   the enquiry form on this site or call our Foster Home Co-ordinator on 99186878.

Donations

Although all our work is entirely voluntary and unpaid we do make a reasonable charge on the adopting owners which covers some of our costs.  We also need help to fund such costs as food for foster homes, veterinary costs, transport boxes, air fares, and any manner of other expenses involved in running this organisation.  We welcome any donation, no matter how small, and you can donate via the Paypal link on this site.

Transport

Our dogs fly either from Larnaca or Paphos airports, depending on their final destination.  It may be one dog, or sometimes two or more.  We desperately need help transporting the dogs and their travel boxes to the airports. The dogs, their boxes and paperwork need to be collected from a re-arranged location and transported to the appropriate airport.  The process would be fully explained and we always ensure our helpers go through the process first with an experienced helper.  Reasonable expenses for petrol and parking will be refunded by CYDRA.  Please contact us via the form on the site or call 99186878 if you could spare us a few hours now and again to help with sending our doggies off to their new homes.

Fundraising

Join us at one of our fundraising events held throughout the year or if you have a special event going on yourself please remember us if you are collecting charitable funds.

Membership

For just 10 euros annually, you can become a member of CyDRA.  This gives you voting rights at our Annual General Meeting and we will keep you up to date with what is happening throughout the year.  Please use the Paypal button below and let us know your 10 euros is for annual membership.

Donations