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Who we are
We are a small group of people
trying to improve the life of animals on Corfu, hence,
the Agni Animal Welfare Fund has been set up in
association with Agni Travel in order that friends and
visitors can make donations to help the islands stray
animals.
In
2005 we
helped several cats with
donations received from friends who visited Agni during
the
previous summer. The offers of help came after seeing
the little
cat that lived around Agni beach. With her
distinctive and attractive looks many people noticed
her. I spoke to one or two of her admirers and mentioned
to several people that she had been spayed the previous
winter, which was why she had no kittens and looked so
well compared to the other female cats. Seeing the
difference in this little cat compared to her sister and
female colleagues inspired others to donate money in
order for us to sterilise more female cats.
Our inspiration
Earlier that year, a friend had suggested to
myself and Nathan the possibility of setting up a
charity or fund in order to help Corfu’s stray animals
and along with the offers to help more of the Agni cats, it
became apparent to us that there was support for the
animals and that visitors would be interested in helping
and supporting an animal welfare fund. This inspired us
to go ahead with a neutering programme that we had been
discussing for some time and form Agni Animal Welfare
Fund. The charity was started in January 2006 and the ‘Little Cat’ being
our inspiration is the Mascot for the charity.
Our objectives
Our primary objectives are to neuter as
many cats as our funds will allow, male or female. To
help any sick cat or dog and offer medication where
necessary and provide food for street animals to help
them survive the winter.
and where we are today
Our primary objective at the time was to
neuter as many female cats as we could afford and reduce
the number of kittens born in the summer. Since our
first year we have received a great deal of support and
are now neutering both males and females as long as our
funds allow us to.
As a charity we also try to discourage 'excessive' feeding during the summer
months and ask visitors not to take the cats into their
villas and apartments during their visit as they are
thrown out at the end of the season and then have to
struggle through the winter months on their own.
We now have several
people working with the charity in other areas of Corfu
enabling us to reach many more animals. In areas that we
have spayed and neutered cats we provide feeding areas
or someone in that area to feed them. Many people both
Greek and English will put food out for a few cats
themselves but
find it impossible to feed 20 or 30 of them. By keeping
the numbers down we are reducing the suffering and
helping the existing ones to survive the winter.
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A group of the Stable Cats
The cats find much of their food
themselves in the summer,
and we try to encourage Taverna
owners to put scraps out for them at the
back of the Tavernas, they will not then hang around
the tables begging
and pestering visitors. Not everyone
loves cats and even those that do, may not want to be
pestered by cats and kittens whilst they are eating
at the Tavernas.
As our income and support has
increased we have also been able to help a few dogs,
mainly giving medication and providing food. We will
continue to help some of the stray dogs as funds
allow, but our prime objective is to neuter the
cats, very few other charities have a neutering
programme as extensive as ours, but other charities
on Corfu are helping and supporting the stray dogs.
The street dog problem proves to be a
little different from that of the cats and whilst we
help in emergency situations the dog rescues also
try to re-home street dogs. Unlike the
cats, the dogs find it more difficult to live in the
wild, so many are moved to Rescue Centres in Europe
where proper homes are found for them. However there
are cases, where street dogs cannot cope with living a
domestic lifestyle and have had to be returned to
where they have been found, after being neutered.
Molly's Story is a
good example, read her story on her own page.
The AAWF also
supports Corfu Donkey Rescue, who are, in return a
great help to us. We give a hand at the
stables when time permits and we also neuter and
spay all
the barn cats. In return for our support, Judy who
runs the Rescue has taken in many stray street
kittens and cats and has given them shelter and a
home. If anyone wishes to help or learn more about
the Donkey Rescue then please visit their website at
www.corfu-donkeys.com
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