Paphos will get a new shelter. The government will allocate €250,000.

A modern shelter for homeless animals is scheduled to be built in the Paphos district within the next 18 months. The government will allocate €250,000 for the investment, but the most important question remains: where exactly the facility will be built.

The shelter will serve the entire Paphos district

The new facility is intended to address the problem of caring for stray animals across the district. Following a meeting with Acting Mayor of Paphos Angelos Onisiforou, Commissioner for Environment and Animal Welfare Elias Myrianthous announced that the project should be completed within 18 months.

Currently, four municipalities and local communities have facilities for temporarily housing animals, but this infrastructure is insufficient. In practice, much of the care for abandoned animals still falls to private organizations and volunteers.

The planned shelter is intended to be a district-wide solution, not another small facility serving only one municipality.

Anarita sparked opposition

The first location considered was a state-owned plot in Anarita, east of Paphos. However, the proposal met with strong opposition from both the Paphos District Community Association and the Anarita local government.

Myrianthous announced that the authorities would attempt to remove the obstacles blocking the project, but he did not rule out the possibility of selecting an entirely different location. This means that despite the declared 18-month deadline, the construction site has still not been finally decided.

The project started even before the change of commissioner

The announcement of the shelter's construction hasn't just come to light. During a meeting of local authorities on May 13th, the government already pledged €250,000 for the investment. In June, the Paphos authorities said the facility would open in 2027.

Since then, the person responsible for animal welfare issues at government level has changed. On August 4, 2026, Elias Myrianthous was appointed Commissioner for the Environment and Animal Welfare, replacing Antonia Theodosiou. The official handover took place a few days later.

The current declarations therefore mean a continuation of the project initiated during the term of office of the previous commissioner.

Paphos has long had a problem with places for animals

The scale of the problem was particularly visible at the end of 2025, when one of the largest private shelters in the Paphos area was forced to leave the area where it had been operating for several decades.

In November, its representatives raised concerns that the problem could affect as many as 2,000 animals housed there. Local authorities, state agencies, and animal protection organizations were in talks at the time regarding their continued care and possible relocation.

There's no basis for considering the planned regional shelter a direct successor to that facility. However, history demonstrates why creating permanent public infrastructure for homeless animals has become a significant challenge for the district authorities.

For now, the key task remains selecting the plot. Only then will we be able to move on to the next stages of the project and assess whether the announced 18-month deadline can be met.

The material was prepared on the basis of information provided by the Office of the Commissioner for the Environment and Animal Welfare, the Paphos authorities and official information from the Presidency of the Republic.