Estimated one million cats prowl streets of Cyprus as officials scramble to check their numbers

Описание: (14 Oct 2025)

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4610587

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nicosia, Cyprus - 10 October 2025
1. Various of cats at a park in the capital, Nicosia

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nicosia, Cyprus - 9 October 2025
2. SOUNDBITE (Greek): Charalambos Theopemptou, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for the Environment ++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS OVERLAID BY SHOT3++
“To give 100-thousand (Euros) as assistance to sterilize cats isn’t working. And then you have the 100-thousand spent right and left with no results, and the reality is that if you really want to solve the cat issue, you must have a plan.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nicosia, Cyprus - 10 October 2025
3. Various of cats at a park in the capital, Nicosia

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nicosia, Cyprus - 10 October 2025
4. cats at a park in capital Nicosia

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alethriko, Cyprus - 11 October 2025
5. SOUNDBITE (Greek): Antonia Theodosiou, Commissioner for the Environment and Animal Welfare ++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS OVERLAID BY SHOT 6-11++
“The magic word is management, meaning if we have the proper count, something that’s contained in our strategic plan which my office has recently conveyed to the Presidency and had already been presented in August, accompanied by various documents and all-encompassing proposals. We’re even also talking about a public medical care program. We’re talking about mass sterilizations. We’re talking about licensing private shelters, supporting their licensing so they can operate with dignity.”
6. A close-up of a black cat’s face
7. A kitten plays with a toy that a volunteer holds at the Friends of Larnaca Cats shelter on the outskirts of the Cypriot village of Alethriko ++SPLIT SCREEN++
8. Wide of Larnaca cat shelter
9. Close of cat
10. Medium of cats devouring cat food given by volunteers ++SPLIT SCREEN++
11. Various of volunteers petting kittens recovering from ailments in the section for ailing cats

STORYLINE:
The island of cats has a cat problem.

Officials in Cyprus, the small island nation in the eastern corner of the Mediterranean, estimate there is roughly one feral cat for every one of its one million inhabitants — though activists contend the actual population is hundreds of thousands higher.

In late September, the island’s parliamentary committee on the environment was told that an existing sterilization program is too limited to contain the burgeoning cat population.

“It’s a good program, but it needs to expand,” said Environment Commissioner Antonia Theodosiou, noting that the program conducts only about 2,000 sterilizations annually on a budget of just 100-thousand euros ($116,000).

While there is no official comparative data, Theodosiou said Cyprus has gained a reputation for having a cat population that is exceptionally large relative to its human inhabitants.

Change might be on the way, but funding alone won’t solve Cyprus’s cat problem.

Appearing to heed calls for more funding, Environment Minister Maria Panayiotou announced on October 4 — World Animal Day — that the government would raise cat sterilization funding to 300-thousand euros annually.

The decision was hailed as a significant step forward.

However, Charalambos Theopemptou, chairman of the Parliamentary Environment Committee, warned against relying on money alone.

"The reality is that if you really want to solve the cat issue, you must have a plan," he said.


Cyprus has a long history as a cat-loving nation where cat food dispensaries and clusters of tiny houses are a regular sight along popular footpaths.









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