The Veterinary Services are in talks with the zoo in Paphos and with similar facilities abroad to take animals from Melios Zoo Park in Agioi Trimithias, as a demolition order issued in 2022 cannot be carried out until the animals have been moved.
The Veterinary Services have no facilities of their own to house the animals, and the talks are continuing. The case returned to the spotlight on Saturday, when a bear got out of its cage.
Asked whether the Veterinary Services had taken legal action against the park’s owner, Menelaos Menelaou, director general Christodoulos Pipis told Phileleftheros they had. He said he would testify on Monday, 19 October, at the hearing of a case over what he described as the illegal import of animals from the Netherlands in 2025. Pipis has also said the authorities will inspect the park this month.
Several services involved
Moving the animals will need the help of several other services, according to the Veterinary Services. These include the Game and Fauna Service, the Fire Service to help transport the animals, and the Department of Environment, as well as the Customs Department if any animals go abroad. An accurate record of all the animals and birds at the park is essential.
Only once the animals have been removed can the Nicosia District Local Government Organisation (DLGO), now the competent authority, carry out the demolition order, a process that will also involve police.
Order delayed
The Nicosia DLGO said the court order was issued in 2022, six years after the application was filed in 2016. A Supreme Constitutional Court ruling on 8 April found that the park had encroached without authorisation on private and state land.
However, the District Administration only informed the DLGO of the order in early summer 2025, according to Agathoklis Agathokleous, head of the DLGO’s section for enforcement, hierarchical appeals and complaints. He said the DLGO immediately contacted the Veterinary Services and the District Administration.
Agathokleous said that before demolition can begin, the DLGO must file a criminal case at the District Court over the business’s failure to comply with the order. That case cannot be filed until the Veterinary Services have drawn up a plan to remove the animals.
Everything was ready for the filing in February, he said, and he had asked the Veterinary Services how they planned to handle the animals. “The case could not be filed without the issue of the animals being resolved,” he said.
He attributed the delay to foot-and-mouth disease, which placed extra demands on the Veterinary Services and left them unable to draw up a plan. A meeting was held at the Agriculture Ministry in May to set a timetable, and the DLGO contacted the Veterinary Services again in late August to resubmit the plans of the buildings due for demolition, he added.
Import dispute
Since Monday, Pipis has said publicly that Menelaou imported animals illegally. Speaking to Stella Savva on OMEGA, he said certificates issued for the animals’ transport related to a zoo, although the park’s zoo licence was no longer valid. “How many times did you use the expired zoo licence to bring in animals?” he asked Menelaou at one point.
Menelaou responded earlier this week, including in a written statement, denying claims Pipis reportedly made about false declarations on import documents for jaguars and lions. He published documents, including correspondence with officials in other European countries, which he says show that the animals’ names were correctly declared and that they were bound for Melios Pet Centre Ltd.
In a separate statement, attaching a court ruling, Menelaou said legally imported and declared animals that arrived at his premises from the Netherlands had been illegally seized and killed by the Game Fund. He said a court had ordered payment to him of 1,200 euros plus interest and all costs of the case.
In June, lawyers for Melios Pet Centre Ltd complained to President Nikos Christodoulides, alleging long-standing, systematic and documented illegal conduct by state officials and services against Menelaou and the company, as well as breaches of constitutional rights, principles of good administration and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
