Is Cyprus for everyone?

[babyblues27]

Anyone thinking of leaving Cyprus? Any regrets about leaving your home country? This is a thread where we can post the cons of living in Cyprus as they exist in every country! This could be informative for people thinking of moving here. I have quickly browsed through some of the threads and I mostly see the pros of living in Cyprus. I am sure that if I was to move to a new country, I would like to hear the cons as well as the good.

I will start by saying Animal cruelty. Thousands of dogs are tied up in the heat without any shade or a supply of fresh water. Many dogs and cats have been poisoned and there are always dangers when walking your dog off leash.

[kimonas]

The issue of animal cruelty is a cultural difference that ex-pats will have to face. Cat lovers are often appalled at the numbers of corpses on the roads (there are a few dead dogs too, especially after the hunting season when dogs get abandoned, but more usually lost by their owners). Well meaning Ex-pats have stepped in with the inevitable shelters of all kinds, including one for unwanted and retired donkeys. Like most long lived traditions the age old tradition of killing unwanted donkeys by pushing them off a cliff has now ceased. As a result the rare Lammergeier (a bird which specialises in eating the marrow of large carrion mammals) has left the island to the detriment of the ecosytems. Most Cypriots, like people in most other civilised places, love their anaimals, but perhaps are not quite so sentimental about retiring them.

Of course if we take just a couple of steps back in time when the West depended more on animals we would be discussing blind pit ponies and animals run to death on the pony expresses etc. Not to mention the kittens and cats walled up to die for good luck in virtually every new build in the UK (a tradition which died out only in the 18th century)