Animals in Cyprus

It has been pointed out to us that goats and sheep are not wildlife. (Thanks for the message Andreas) Therefore this page has been born. Here you can see the noble goat, cat, dog, mouse, moth and sheep with distinction. If you have any contribution to make we will be pleased to receive it. Below you will find our links:
(and the wildlife page)

This is the procedure for

Importing a cat or dog into Cyprus from outside the EU

 1)  Obtain import permit form from the veterinary department of the town you are staying in.

2)  Somebody from the veterinary department will come and inspect the premises where your cat or dog will live.

3)  When the arrival time of the animal is known the veterinary  department must be notified.

4) When the animal arrives a veterinary department vet will be at the airport to inspect the animal, if the animal arrives after 11 pm then it will have to stay at the airport until the next day for inspection.

5)  If the animal will stay in Cyprus indefinitely the fee is 167 cy pounds, if it will only be here for a while then the fee is less, depending on how long it will stay.

6) For obtaining an import permit or any other information you can call the Larnaca veterinary department on 24 630275 or fax 24 630270.

(Please note that this information is provided as a guideline only, please make your own enquiries when moving an animal, this is not an official document.)

Importing a cat or dog into Cyprus from inside the EU

If you are coming into Cyprus from an E.U. member country you may, with the proper paperwork, enter without quarantine restrictions, as long as your cat, dog or ferret has the appropriate passport and has been chipped.

To see the passport and read the rules and regulations, see here

Please note that animals may only be carried by certain airlines on certain routes.

A small fee may be payable

A reader said (August 2007)

'No one came to inspect our property, We were only charges £11.00 at the airport and they said it was not necessary to get a vet as they had all the correct documentation. They will also not keep a pet until the next days.'

That was because the animals were imported from an EU country I suspect.
We apologise to anyone for whom this was not clear advice, we have tried to make it clearer now with a dividing line and separate heading, please read carefully.

For obtaining any information you can call the Larnaca veterinary department on 24 630275 or fax 24 630270.

(Please note that this information is provided as a guideline only, please make your own enquiries when moving an animal, this is not an official document.)

Dog Kennels & Catteries

If you are going on holiday and wish to leave your dog in kennels for the duration it will cost you between about £7 to £10 a day depending on the size of your friend. There are a growing number of kennels in Cyprus, especially now that we have an opening up for foreigners on the business front. A good thing for dogs we hope.

If you are looking for a kennel or Cattery near you, let us know where you live and when you want to go away and we will see if any of our contacts have space for that period. Please be aware that Christmas and Easter are very busy times and so booking early is a must.

Contact us here

  Animal Links and other stories

We are pleased to include these worthy animal links in Cyprus.
If you are looking for a pet, take a look at the classifieds

The first link is the Malcolm Cat Protection Society

The second is the Cyprus Association for the Protection and Care of
Animals, or C.A.P.C.A. Their new address is:
http://www.dogscyprus.org

Then we have The Nicosia Dog shelter
When I visited in July 2003 I wanted to take 7 of the 150 dogs
in residence, but of course took only 1.

There was an issue with this whole story,
and if you are interested you can see it here

Donations are asked for here, I was particularly impressed with the way these dogs all seem to get on so well together.

Here are the Friends of the Cyprus Donkey, run by Patrick Skinner and various volunteers, a home for unwanted and retired Cyprus donkeys. Visitors are welcome.

We are not sure if this comes under animals or wildlife,
but so as not to upset Andreas we will put it here.
These are the wild donkeys of the Karpaz Peninsula

The cats in Cyprus are numerous and have a delightful character on the whole. The are excellent mousers and also will kill snakes and other wildlife which may invade your home, including the huge field cockroaches. These are not the same as the smaller house cockroaches, they look similar but are in comparison much, much bigger. They fly in from the fields, come up from the drains. The authorities used to come every year and put DDT down the drains for the mosquito's, but they stopped doing it in about 1982.

   
Click the picture to enlarge.
 

The many cats at Larnaca Marina are always looking for homes,
so if you are looking for a pussy cat or kitten, let us know

Mice & Rodents

We recently (2007) had a small plague of mice in the house, and being pathetic, we could not kill them. They seemed to know that, and at the point where they were begging for chocolates whilst sitting on the keyboard of my laptop, we got out the humane Cyprus special mouse traps. We had 2 kinds, one was a round wire mesh affair with a hole in the middle, where the mice would go (after the chocolate) and couldn't get out, due to the sharp spears surrounding the hole at an angle. The other, a rat trap really, a rectangular box with a hook for cheese, which springs into action when disturbed, slamming shut the door. We were catching 2 at a time and when we had 6 or 8 we would take a trip to the countryside and introduce a small colony to their country cousins. Whilst we collected them they stayed in a small plastic hamster house.  The one below was totally tame.  We later heard that a new species of mouse had been discovered at the salt lake. hmmmm....

A town mouse, soon to be a salt lake citizen.

Click the picture to enlarge.

We did write to the university concerned to ask for more information about them, such as whether one answers to the name of Gerald, but so far have not had a reply - will keep you posted.

Our beautiful Dragonflys

This year (2007) we had a bright red dragonfly in the garden who was so friendly and responsive that I had to quite change my mind about the communicatory skills of insects.
He made a home by the pool and was happily sitting in the point of a cactus/succulent from early morning until near dusk every day. I spoke to him (as one does) whenever I went to swim or water the garden and after about 2 weeks whilst taking a quick dip at lunchtime, I called to him and held up my hand. Luckily I had a witness, as probably no one would have believed that he flew over, landed on my finger, puffed his bottom up into the air and very obviously watched me closely through amazingly huge bulbous eyes.

The next day I was wat5ering the spider plant in a hanging basket at dusk when he flew out from where he had obviously made his night time headquarters and punched me in the face! I was duly chastised.

He mated with a pretty blue wife, so we are expecting purple babies to build our budding dragon fly familly.