The Nicosia Dog Shelter provides much needed temporary shelter and care for many unwanted dogs and puppies in Nicosia and to help educate the public on basic animal welfare and care. During the pandemic they facilities have been stretched to the limit due to the increase in abandoned dogs.
Within weeks of the onset of the pandemic, Nicosia Dog Shelter (NDS) was providing a temporary home to more rescued dogs than it had capacity for. Not only were more dogs being abandoned than usual, NDS was unable to send dogs that had been adopted by families in the UK to their new homes due to travel restrictions. The Scheinberg Relief Fund provided urgently needed funds to improve NDS’s existing infrastructure and to increase its capacity to temporarily home rescued dogs. 23 new dog kennels were built and a new fenced recreation area was created. A new generator and water pump were installed and medication was purchased to protect the dogs from ticks and parasites through the long hot summer of 2020.
By the end of 2020, NDS was in significant financial difficulty. All fundraising events had had to be cancelled, and their main source of income generation, their charity shop, remained closed due to government restrictions. The Scheinberg Relief Fund provided additional support to cover the cost of essential veterinary treatments for their most needy dogs, to purchase collars against ticks, fleas and leishmania, to install a fresh water tap in each kennel, and to transport 6 senior dogs to the Mayflower Sanctuary in England.