Updates On 17th Apr 2015

MY VOLUNTEER TRIP TO AVSALLAR, TURKEY

Written by Liz Williams of the UK

I wanted to go on an animal rescue ‘volunteering holiday’ but I wanted it to be a small charity or lone worker struggling against all odds… I decided to approach the Harmony Fund as they specialize in supporting the underdog of animal rescues throughout the world.

The Harmony fund, very kindly directed me to Manuela Wroblewski who is a young German woman living in Avsallar, Turkey, for the past 6 years looking after over 270 stray cats and dogs. This is a mammoth task as not only does she struggle to feed these poor souls everyday, but there is also neutering, medical care and veterinary trips to deal with.

I arrived in the middle of the night to the small town of Avsallar January 1st 2015. Manuela met me at the bus stop. We had been communicating for the past 6 months on Facebook, so I felt I already knew her quite well. She welcomed me with open arms, pleased of the help and the company.

There are no willing cat fosterers in Turkey so Manuela has to foster dozens of cats herself – she currently had 17 cats in her home and a further 20 or so living outside in her garden. Pets are not highly regarded in Turkey and if someone does take in a cat or a dog, the animal is likely to be discarded again without a second thought if the owner moves home or gets bored.

I did the feeding walk with Manuela for the first few days – it is a very long, arduous journey and takes the entire day to complete – the last stretch is done in the dark.

The cats hear the trolley wheels approaching and come running frantically from all directions desperate for their only meal that day. Some are friendly, some are timid – all of them young and beautiful but none of them severely skinny as Manuela is doing such a fantastic job keeping them from starving.

There is an ongoing TNR (trap, neuter and return) scheme in place but for one woman and the 2 vets, this is a constant race against time.

Over the week I was there, I drew a rough map of the walk and marked an ‘X’ at each site where there were hungry mouths to feed. It took me all week to complete the map – Manuela has spent 6 years devising the quickest and easiest route to include all the cats in the entire area and numerous stops at certain shops along the way in order to restock her food trolley and get the best food prices en-route.

One closed hotel with 12 cats and kittens living in the grounds had a cat-friendly caretaker – during my trip, the caretaker told us that the hotel owner wanted to get rid of the cats once and for all and that he was going to get a ‘fighting dog’ to kill the cats and deter future ones. The next day I did the feeding walk alone, approaching that hotel in fear and trepidation…. As I walked up to the entrance I saw, for the first time, the gated barrier was down (to keep the fighting dog in, I presumed) I nervously went through the unlocked barrier and stopped in my tracks as I saw a large brown dog lounging on the pathway! my heart was in my mouth as to what I might find. I went to the usual cat feeding area and to my surprise there were lots of hungry cats and kittens frantically scurrying around. The dog was not bothered by the cats. I fed the cats and I fed the dog. The main problem was that the dog kept eating all the cats’ food and the cats and kittens were scared of the dog. I devised a way to feed the cats where the dog could not reach. I was relieved that, although the dog was unknowingly scaring the poor cats, he was at least not interested in killing them! when I left I looked behind me as I walked up the road and the dog walked straight through the bars of the barrier to follow me – this made me smile – as the barrier was clearly not keeping him in or out and it was just coincidence that he had chosen that day to go there!

I called him Bobby and he walked with me for the next hour of my feeding walk and each day until I left, he was so placid and friendly, even wanting to play when we had to walk over part of the beach, until I got to a gate each day that I had to close and lock behind me – he sat there whimpering and barking while I had to walk away – it broke my heart feeling like I was abandoning my own pet. However, I met him the next day and Manuela and subsequent feeding volunteers have also met him and fallen in love with him – his pictures appearing regularly on Facebook. Each person called him a different name – Manuela’s Facebook group ‘Adoption time in Avsallar’ all wanted to save him so the next volunteer who hired a car, took him to a dog pension in Alanya, were he is currently waiting to be found a new home somewhere else in the world. He is currently named ‘Tony’

I decided to adopt a cat whilst I was there. ‘Arabella’ has settled well – confident, bold and beautiful, a true little survivor of Avsallar.

TO DONATE: Donate to this project here http://harmonyfund.org/donate/making-miracles-for-the-street-dogs-cats-in-turkey

TO VOLUNTEER: Please visit the Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/AdoptionAvsallar/

Source: https://www.facebook.com/GreatAnimalRescueChase/photos/a.135..

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The Great Animal Rescue Chase celebrates the art of animal rescue with a worldwide race to rescue one million. It’s a free event, open to all, and is perhaps the only global animal rescue event aimed at helping any animal in distress, anywhere in the world. Our ambition is to create a culture of enthusiasm and pride in animal activism. We believe in teaching, by example, that there is a hero in each of us just waiting to be unleashed. Empowered animal lovers can not only save lives, but build the momentum for powerful animal welfare reform.

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