Pets, Phedon, mud-slinging and hypocrisy
Source: in-cyprus.com
When someone searches for somewhere to rent—a house or flat—do you know what element they’ll find in virtually every property advert? Apart, of course, from the rent prices that cause shock and awe.
All or nearly all landlords seeking tenants for their properties take care to add the following to their basic property descriptions: No pets allowed. Or, Pets prohibited. Or, Pets not permitted.
Yet we all pretend to be animal lovers. Nearly every Cypriot household has pets—mainly dogs and cats. Never mind that many still keep them chained up, locked in small cages, or on scorching rooftops and balconies. It’s illegal, but who’s bothered to enforce the legislation? The non-existent Animal Police?
Anyone with a pet—a companion animal—finds it virtually impossible to rent a home. Unless they abandon their pet. An announcement I found from 2022 by the Cyprus Animal Welfare Society states that 200,000 dogs are abandoned in Cyprus every year. The figure seems excessive, but it isn’t when you consider how many families have a dog at home. Nearly all of them.
Even landlords renting out properties have dogs themselves. But when they come to let their properties, they make sure to announce: No pets allowed. Yet when it comes to presenting their sensitive selves, they all declare that their pet is a family member. And it is. But by what logic, under what law, with what moral justification do they refuse to rent their properties to others who also have pets as family members?
I write this in the hope we might feel a bit of shame. Because we lurch from hypocrisy to hypocrisy in this society of angels. I was reminded of this by the ordeal our Olympian Carolina Pelendritou faced in Athens when a taxi driver refused to let her guide dog into his cab. Carolina kicked up a fuss, publicly denounced him, and has the power to fight to end such attitudes. But what can an ordinary citizen do when finding somewhere to live means abandoning their pet?
Let no one say that Carolina’s experience doesn’t concern us because it happened in Athens. We do the same and worse. In an era when you can get a European Pet Passport and travel with your companion animal to any country, on this blessed island you can’t find a home to live in with your pet. We’re not well!
P.S. Some will find it odd that this column addresses such a topic. But what more important matter should it tackle? Phedon? Who periodically drops bombshells without ever substantiating anything he says? Yesterday, he dropped a fresh one. He wrote: “With full awareness of my responsibility to the citizens, I publicly pose this question: Who is the former Minister who, in August 2020, purchased a large safe for personal use?” He posed this question, he says, because “during the same period, major contracts were signed and crucial decisions were taken in which this particular former Minister played a leading role.” And “I declare with absolute clarity: I will not be giving a statement to the Police. That is not my responsibility.”
He implies the former minister bought the large safe to store bribes he received. If he has such evidence, shouldn’t he present it? Not as mayor, but as an ordinary citizen. Or at least as a citizen who aspires to govern not just Paphos but all of Cyprus. Perhaps the former minister bought the safe to store documents from the major contracts he signed. Just saying. How easily we sling mud these days whilst the other party has to run around cleaning themselves up!
Better to concern myself with pets than with them.
The original article: belongs to in-cyprus.com .
