STRAY ANIMALS IN THE SEYCHELLES

In the last couple of years, we travelled a lot around Europe and met several abandoned animals, usually stray cats, especially in the Southern part of the continent (Cyprus, Azores). Before travel, when doing the packing list, we don`t forget these animals, putting some cat food into the baggage and giving it to them during the one-day trips, providing some food and fresh water for these animals who usually have little food and lack fresh drinking water.

Seychelles is a little bit different, is a mixture of Asia and Africa, with European effects because of the colonial past of this country. Cats are rare there, and it`s not likely to meet stray cats during your holiday, because Seychellois people like and protect nature, and wild birds, so they usually own a few cats. Cats could be a significant danger to the original fauna of little birds. We met only one stray cat family of five on La Digue island, Anse Source D`Argent.

In the Seychelles, stray dogs likely roam free on beaches, and forests, walking on the roads or sleeping on the pavement or in the middle of the road, so you have to be careful while driving your car. Locals own and care for a lot of dogs on their own property and we could see that most of the dogs don`t like this hot and humid tropical weather, some of them struggling and barking all day and usually all night, but there are a lot of owners who let their dogs come into the air-conditioned house for the nights. The dogs we met on the islands were in good condition and friendly, not aggressive.

In the last few years government has done a lot to reduce the number of stray dogs with free neutering programs, finding homes for the stray animals and this year they created a new law which came into force on the 1st of September. After this date, dogs will have to be registered and micro-chipped. Owners will be fined if their dogs are found roaming. Rules also regulate how these pets are kept at home. The aim of the new law is to reduce the population of stray dogs.

If you would like to do something good for these animals, please make a donation to the animal welfare charity SeySPCA on their website or visit them at their office on Mahé Island or you can find a donation box at the airport in Victoria.

https://seyspca.webs.com/donate

https://www.facebook.com/sspcaseychelles/