In 2021, the Greek government introduced a new animal welfare legislation named “Project Argos” that mandates amongst other things, a national animal registration system, compulsory neutering, and sets the parameters for identifying animal abuse. The local municipalities are given an annual budget for sterilisation, microchipping, vaccination and veterinary care etc. And all stray animals now legally belong to the municipality.

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Since 2022, we have been actively working with Kythira’s municipality, implementing annual cat sterilisation campaigns (TNR - trap, neuter and return), throughout the island.  With the help of volunteers we catch the stray cats, take them to the veterinary for sterilisation, vaccination, microchipping etc., and then we return them to their original location. 

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TNR reduces overall stray populations, improves cat welfare, lowers disease and aggression, and decreases incidents of poisoning, which was previously more common.