Let’s Adopt! 2010 revisited

As usual I have left my End of the Year post to the very last minute. I tell you, I wish the day had a few extra hours, I don’t manage to fit everything in just 24.

I would like this last post of the year to make a quick recap of the hightlights of 2010, the good and the bad, the successes and the failures. This will be just a quick list,NOT a full account of our work for the year, doing that would be impossible. I would encourage to read it and follow the links, revisit the year with us, and at the end, if you feel (as we do) that we are doing something worth sharing and supporting, please share this post.

January:

– January 1st:  Bibi was rescued in Istanbul. Typical case of a puppy being dumped by its owner. We went through quite a lot to find her a home but we found her a wonderful place in Istanbul. She was adopted by Sinan Cetin (a celebrated turkish filmmaker) and family.

– January 5: We launched our +1 campaign. The concept was simple… Add ONE more animal into your home. This campaign generated hundreds of requests both in Turkey and abroad. Many applicants that did not fit our criteria but that clearly had potential were sent to adopt shelters in Turkey. Suitable families adopted our rescues. It was a great campaign and to date many members are still wearing the +1 logo as their Facebook profile picture.

– January 7: Karam left Turkey. Karam was an old dog rescued by one of our closest members. We tried for months to find him a home in Turkey. We failed miserably. Not a single one of our members decided to adopt him. Worst, not a single person offered to foster. In the end, after months of waiting we sent him across the world, to Seattle. Karam died months later of natural causes. For the first time in his life he was truly loved by a family.

– January 11: Horror in Izmir. Horrific images of a shelter in Turkey leaded on the internet. Cevat Durak the Mayor of Karşıyaka in Izmir became the centre of a controversy that would continue for months.

– January 20: Kont the tripod is rescued and rehomed amongst Let’s Adopt! members. Kont is a dog whose leg had to be amputated due to a traffic accident. We were very lucky to be able to find him a home in Turkey. Sadly it is nearly an impossible task to find homes for handicapped animals in this country, still, sometimes miracles happen.

– January 28: Our rescue Boris was lost by his adoptant, Burak Ihsan Atinç. This was one of the most painful moments of the year. The cowardly Burak, instead of looking for him simply deleted his Facebook account and went on with his life as normal. His name was placed on our Blacklist  and he will be forever associated to this sad episode.

February:

– February 7: Genny. Genny was rescued in Izmir. The rescuer sent her to an inadequate home in Istanbul, we had to intervene and rescue her from there. Sadly Genny had contracted distemper in Izmir, and started showing symptoms after a few days with us. It was a horrible situation, we risked a distemper outbreak. Happily for everybody none of the animals in contact with her contracted the disease. After a long treatment Genny recovered completely.

– February 14: Hope and Pipas, two puppies dumped from a car in motion recovered from their injuries. Both of them were rehomed amongst our members in Germany.

– February 16: Fatos was saved. After a quick campaign that targetted one of Istanbul leading developers, Fatos, the stray dog was saved. This episode caused great embarrassment to a lot of people and marked the beginning of a series of campaigns where proactive action was taken to protect the life of innocent animals.

– February 25: Save Brindi. Brindi’s story is one of the saddest episodes of the year. After two years of being impounded and sentenced to death row we launched a campaign to lobby for her release.  Her owner, Francesca Rogier, managed to have her returned to her. Sadly the Mayor of Halifax would not forgive the very public humiliation and would have Brindi impounded after a few weeks. As of today Brindi is back under the supervision of Halifax animal control and her owner continues fighting for her release. The political career of Peter Kelly, the Mayor of Halifax will forever be associated to this embarrassing case.

March:

– March 11: Alex flies home to Belgium. Alex was a three legged dog found in Izmir. As no suitable home was found in Turkey we flew him to Belgium where is having the time of his life.

April:

– April 4: A switch in focus. This was one of the most difficult decisions we had to make. Sickened by the lack of response and interest of our Turkish network we decided to switch focus alltogether. From this moment on we would concentrate on strenghtening our network of foster homes in Istanbul whilst enlarging our german network of adoptants. This strategy would allow us both to continue rescuing in Turkey as well as increasing the number of final adoptions in Europe.
Needless to say and because of this decision we were accused of a multitude of things, amongst them racism and of selling stray dogs to chinese restaurants and laboratories.  We decided to use our Turkish network as mainly an educational effort.

– April 10: Tiny left Turkey. We took advantage of the situation to offer all our members an insight into the costs of running this group. The general reaction was one of surprise and support.

– April 12: Soi Dog/ Let’s Adopt Thailand. On April 12 we announced our alliance with the Soi Dog Foundation in Thailand. Soi Dog is one of the best run animal charities in Asia and we are proud to have been worked with them in a number of rescues during the last year.

– April 18: Mila’s Salvation. After hearing of the plea of Mila, a multiple amputee dog in Serbia we asked our friends at Pasado’s Safe Heaven to help us with the rescue of this poor victim of human cruelty. Pasado’s stepped out to the plate and offered their full assistance as well as a home for Mila. Sadly Mila had by them become a political pawn in Serbia and she was not allowed to leave the country. Mima’s fate is unknown to us as of today.

– April 20: The rescue of Nader and Maheen. Two persian cats are abandoned at an animal shelter. We needed to find them a home together. As usual our turkish community remained silent. I had to take both of them home. It took us months to find them a home but finally we found one, in Belgium. Both Nader and Maheen are still waiting for a flight volunteer to fly home.

– April 23: We said NO the the Circus. A quick campaign to lend support to a young canadian animal activist ended up with the Cirque Estival having to cancel its performances using animals. The protest reached a broad national audience.

May:

– May 6: Top Dog. Our first Community gathering… As an organization is was a complete disaster, the location was horrible, the music system didn’t work, beer was warm!.. but oh boy, did we had fun!

– May 7: Let’s Adopt Rainbow. Let’s Adopt! launched it’s own gay and lesbian community. We were surprised to receive many complaints about this decision. We didn’t pay much attention to it and went ahead with the launch.

– May 8: Tiny Dancer.  Without a doubt one of my favourite rescues of this year. Tiny dancer was rehomed in Washington.

– May 13: Jumpy went home. Jumpy’s rescue was one of the happiest days of this year. Sadly the beautiful three legged pup died of distemper a few weeks later. I never met him personally as the rescue took place in Ankara, but I still think of him regularly.

– May 13: On the same day of Jumpy’s rescue we took up another incredible case, Pufi, a puppy whose paws were amputated by a teenage child abuser in Romania. Weeks later Pufi would reach his new family in Germany.

– May 19: Our rescue, Bella, is dropped in the forest by the veterinarian Onur Salih Karadag, of Cismeli Kedi. This was, without any doubt, one of the saddest episodes of my entire rescuer life. The lifes of two of our rescues were wasted by orders of the despicable vet. The reaction of our community was prompt and strong. As a result the name of this clinic became an example for everything that is wrong in the Turkish veterinarian society. Onur Salih Karadag tried to open a court case. The case was rejected by the court. The name of the clinic will forever remain associated to this case.

June:

– June 10: No hero left behind. Let’s Adopt! lent a hand to the Puppy Rescue Mission and helped in the rescue of six puppies from Afghanistan. The puppies reached the USA a few weeks later.

– June 11: Launch of Let’s Adopt Global Facebook Page. Until that date we had been using our group mailing list exclusively. In six months the Page has reached 20.000 members and continues growing at a steady pace.

July:

July 1st: My own dog Peke falls gravely ill with pneumonia.

July 16: The death of a puppy. Two puppies, Latte and Bitter died that day.

July 21: Nokta and Apricot fall sick with distemper.  Both of them recovered initially, sadly Nokta relapsed and in the end left us.

July 28: We launch a campaign against Petworld, one of the most infamous Pet Shops in Istanbul.

August:

August 2: We enter the Pepsi Refresh Contest. In spite of the massive response by our community the competition ends up in fiasco when all non-american votes are cancelled.

August 11: Hope in Bolu: After a quick campaign in which we released the mobile number of the Mayor of Bolu, the Municipality agrees to improve the horrendous conditions at the shelter. Change is slow in Turkey but this episode showed us how quickly things can turn around if the entire community pushes forward.

Agust 16.. Ripley. The most difficult case we ever worked on. Ripley’s dissabilities meant it would be nearly impossible to find her a home. We did find a wonderful home in the US, sadly Ripley died due a veterinarian mistake the day before flying to her new home.

August 23: The trouble with PETA. PETA admits mass euthanasia on camera in Istanbul and bows never to adhere to the No-Kill Principles. On our side, we bowed NEVER to allow PETA to influence Turkish society to accept mass killing as a solution to the stray animal problem.

August 25:  We launched our global appeal for foster homes. As expected, the campaign was incredibly successful all over the world EXCEPT Turkey. In Turkey our members are too busy enjoying the last days of summer.

August 31: George Clooney flies to Holland

September:

September 16: We win the popular vote in the Tasso Award… unfortunately, and as expected, the judges decide to give the award to someone else. That day we take the decision never again to agree to participate on a similar initiative or accept an Award by anyone. We are not here to collect awards.

September 20: Marlon flies to the USA!

October:

October 17: Turkish Society takes to the street to fight for animal rights

October 25: Clyde is lost in Istanbul by his foster family. He was never to be seen again.

October 26: We name Turkish Airlines as World’s Worst Airline for Pets. The campaign touches a nerve at Turkish Airlines and forces the inmediate response of Temel Kotil, Turkish Airline’s CEO.

November

November 24: No more Smoking dogs. In order to protect the health of our animals we decide to apply a No-Smoking policy and ban adoptions to smoking families in all our networks.  As expected, there is a strong backlash to the measure. After listening to the complains of hundreds of smokers and consult with veterinarians we decide the issue is far too important to ignore and to continue applying the ban to protect the health of our animals. Many members left as a result of this decision. In France in particular the reaction is particularly virulent.  Oh la la…

So… this has been, grosso modo, our year 2010. To this list you need to add the rescue of hundreds of individual animals, most of them special needs, animals that would be considered unadoptable by the majority of rescue groups, the feeding of hundreds of abandoned animals in the forest of Bolluca and the efforts of our regional communities, France-Belgium, Canada, USA, Germany, Bulgaria and Australia… and of course, the incredible daily work of the Soi Dog Foundation in Phuket, Thailand..

All of this has been achieved without the presence of a real budget, purely through the combined efforts of our incredible community of rescuers.

How do we do all of this? I tell you how…  with a lot of effort, with a lot of passion and with the firm conviction that by building this incredible organization we are changing the world for the best. Everything we do, and I mean, everything, is done with the best interest of our animals in mind. We have never, and will never, take a decision based on any political agenda or to please anyone. We promise to continue to uphold these same principles, because they are what make us unique.

Here is to a great 2011… With your help, great things wil happen this year…

Viktor Larkhill

viktor@myletsadopt.com