October 4th is the day for the animals, a day to raise awareness for their status and to improve animal welfare standards worldwide. World Animal Day is celebrated individually in every country, with one common goal: to make animal issues front page news. Voluntary ambassadors around the globe are actively introducing World Animal Day in their countries uniting millions of people to be animal advocates on this day. And in Cyprus this ambassador is Stella Stylianou – as I learned at the Argos Animal Sanctuary last November, while I was there for the German organisation Hundeliebe-grenzenlos e.V..
Stella has constantly been working very hard to improve the lives of animals in her country. It was in 2015 that I first came to visit the Argos to see, learn and document. And it was clear that there’s only one way out of this catastrophic situation: further explain and educate on the ground – and support local activities in their efforts to spay and neuter the animals, in order to control the situation and finally decrease the population of stray animals. This is what Stella is working for, being the founder and director of the Argos Animal Sanctuary and a member of Cyprus Voice for Animals (a union of animal welfare organisations in Cyprus).
And they are making progress – you can now see animal welfare developments achieved in Cyprus from 2008 to 2019
