The Cyprus Society for the Protection of Animals has agreed to pay for the neutering of cats at the Central Prisons.
The Animal Party Cyprus said that the society had stepped in after the state spent two months trying to find the necessary funding, and that the matter appeared to have been held up by bureaucracy, regulations and the civil service.
The party thanked the society, its president Toulla Poyiatzi and its board for taking on the cost.
“Animal welfare organisations are not a substitute for the state,” it said. It was unacceptable that groups working with limited resources were expected to make up for the shortcomings of a state with institutions, services and powers of its own, the party added, and animal protection should not depend on whether a sponsor could be found or on waiting for bureaucracy to be unblocked.
Poyiatzi, according to the party, had been at the forefront of animal rights campaigning in Cyprus since 1980.
