The problem is huge in this country, there are thousands if not millions of stray dogs and cats trying to survive on the streets, in the forests or in the horrible shelters. There are several reasons contributing to this situation - selling puppies like toys in the pet shops is one, buying those puppies and then abandoning them when they are bigger is another, the government does not have a vision and strategic plan to solve this problem nor an effective spaying / neutering program in place, the existing animal welfare law is far being sufficient but not even that is applied when it comes to animal abuse, killing, torturing an animal... So in this environment every day is a battle for a stray especially for puppies...
We, the rescue workers and small grass root associations, are struggling with this problem every day! Yes we manage to save some but how about all the others we see but not being able to take under proper care:(
Every day we receive a call, a cry for help, asking if we could take this dog, that puppy, this abandoned cat... We do our best to respond but we have limited capacity and very limited budget. From rescue to rehoming costs so much effort, money and time (min 4 months)
Especially nowadays with covid travel restrictions and Turkish government's inexplicable new bureaucratic barriers for international adoption, we feel so hopeless sometimes...
These 5 golden mix puppies were put in an open pick up and dumped in the middle of nowhere last weekend in Cesme / Izmir. A volunteer who lives in the area saw them and alerted the local association. Yesterday we took them to the clinic got some tests which showed that they have giardia so we made sure they have the necessary medications and proper puppy food. And send them back to that field hoping that they will survive...
Is this enough? No of course not, they are little puppies with no mother to protect them, they should be taken under care and look after BUT how? where?
It is an uphill battle we are facing every single day...