Wednesday, the 28 of September.

The animal lover community of Istanbul is alerted by the gruesome news of the discovery of a mass poisoning of stray dogs in the Bolluca forest.

Surrounding one of the small lakes in the area, lay the bodies of well over 150 dogs. The animals, all of them known to the many volunteers feeding the strays in the area lay on the floor with evident poisoning symptoms.

For years, the Bolluca area has been a preferred location for Kadir Topbas, the Mayor of Istanbul, to dump thousands of animals in one of the worst managed stray dog programs in Europe.

Tens of animal lovers accompanied by their trusted veterinarians rushed to the location in order to administer first aid to the animals. Some of the worst affected cases have been taken to clinics all across Istanbul.

Animal lovers, in their search for a culprit blame the poisoning on the inhabitants of the village.

We arrived to the site in the evening, spent some examining the dogs and talking to the volunteers. It didn’t take us long to realize that this was not the usual “mass poisoning campaign”.

Most of the dogs were still alive.

We took two of the worst cases and rushed them to our clinic where we performed a preliminary blood test. The test results were normal, with no traces of the usual poison used in previous mass killings around the country. There were no traces of strychnine or any of the chemicals used in rat poison.

The animals were clearly in distress and pain, but they had no seizures and any other of the symptoms typically associated with poison.

In the morning an autopsy was performed on one of the dogs that died. The doctors found an unsual amount of sausages and turkish salami (sucuk) in the animal’s stomach.

It took us a few seconds to understand and join all the pieces together. This hasn’t been an intentional crime, this has been a very cruel accident caused by someone who didn’t intended to harm the dogs in the first place.

Botulism.

Botulism is caused by botulinum toxin, a potent neurotoxin. There are seven types of botulinum toxin, being type C the one most commonly causing botulism in animals.Botulism occurs when animals ingest preformed toxins in food or C. botulinum spores germinate in anaerobic tissues and produce toxins as they grow.

It all made sense… the dogs had eaten sausages… sausages infected with the toxin.

The only possible treatment is the administration of Botulinum antitoxin, a state regulated medication that, given early, may prevent the disease from progressing and decrease the duration of symptoms.

As supportive treatment it is recommended stomach lavage and the application of enemas as well as respiratory support if the muscles that assist breathing are affected.

That is the treatment the four dogs we have rescued are following. We have instructed the volunteers and vets on the site on how to best perform stomach lavage and enemas. We don’t know if they will be able to perform the procedures.

Chances are the most affected dogs will die an extremely slow and agonizing death but we believe many will recover although it will take a very long time.

The burning question is… How could something like this happen? Who did this?

I don’t know the name of the person who did it, but an educated guess gives me a very close explanation to what it may have happened.

Many animal lovers, in their efforts to feed the stray animals routinely accept excess and out of date stock from supermarkets given away for free or at a heavily discounted price. I believe this was caused by a well-intentioned animal lover that got hold of a large amount of out-of-date sausages given away by a supermarket chain.

Sadly, this time, the animal savior became their killer.

Please watch this video, it will help you understand the sad plea of all those animals laying out in the fields of Istanbul, literally, waiting to die. After you have watched, pls SHARE this post, it may save some lives. Our thanks to Aysin Onen for her strength and courage taking these pictures..

I will never forget the first time I saw him. He came into my inbox as a .jpg file, one amongst a hundred other pictures depicting, in a way that left nothing to imagination, the daily life of the puppies living at the Yeniciftikilk shelter just outside Istanbul.

He caught my eye… he was tiny, a ball of black fur rolling in the dirt, surrounded by waste and disease, stepped on by every other dog in the shelter. Too tired to do much other than stand up, take a couple of steps and lay again in a shallow hole.

I looked at his piercing, pleading eyes. Eyes that spoke to me without words, telling me that he was ok but asking me to hurry, to rush there and whisk him and his litter mates away to a place where they would be more comfortable, where they could drink clean water and eat nutritious food, where they wouldn’t be disturbed by burly men in the middle of the night, a place where they wouldn’t die.

An unbearable feeling of guilt assaulted me. What could I do? There were too many… I was too far and besides, I was too busy with other cases. This baby would have to wait.

With the click of a button, he disappeared from my my computer screen, but not from my mind.

Over the next few days I kept on hearing about that shelter. The inhumane conditions in which the animals were being kept were claiming lives every day. I asked about the tiny black dog that spoke to me. What dog? There were many of them like him.

Weeks later I received another email loaded with pictures. I saw dead rats floating in putrid waters, and bodies, the inert bodies of little dogs that couldn’t stand disease and lack of water and food.

The limp body of my little friend was there laying still on top of a piece of wood. He was still alive, but by the looks in his eyes you could see it was too late for him. The pictures had been taken a couple of days earlier. The baby had died minutes after the photographer took the shot.

My heart shattered. I cried. Silent tears. Enraged with myself for having looked away. I replied to that email, I would help!. None of those babies would die. We would rescue as many as we could, in stages. We would save them all. The following day we rescued 15 of those puppies, the smallest, the weakest, those that would have died without ever having a chance at their dreams.

A few days later I went to the shelter to check on the remaining puppies, we gave them all a quick check and inoculated them with the basic vaccinations against the biggest killers, parvo and distemper. We made sure they would be ok for a bit longer.

We have worked extremely hard to find those babies a home. Many of them have, but many are still waiting at the shelter.

Tomorrow three of them, Baby, Billie and Lucy will board a Turkish Airlines flight to Freedom and Life. Three more will fly the following week, and this will continue as long as it takes to save them all.

We need your help. This is the Chipin we have been using to pay for the veterinary and boarding expenses of the 15 babies. The chipin has also saved close to 50 lives from the Gas Chamber of Nashville in North Carolina. Of all the possibly charitable contributions you could ever make this month, this is the one where you will be able to truly make a difference.

Please, join me, this is life changing, this is important…. Please contribute to our Chipin… let’s lend this babies a hand that takes them away to LIFE!

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Every dog needs a family that provides him with a loving pack structure. They need love, they need exercise and good food to thrive.

Sadly, in this shelter in Turkey dogs get GARBAGE for food and RAT JUICE instead of water. Don’t believe it? Click here for a hi-def picture in all it’s grotesque glory.

15 of them… each one more loving and playful than the other, living in absolute squalor and deprivation in a municipal shelter that can only be described as Hell on Earth.

Being there, hearing the cheerful yelps of the playful puppies mixed with the muted last breaths of the babies that are too weak to survive was a most harrowing experience. One that I’m sure very few people would be able to go through without breaking down in tears.

We have started the process of getting ALL the puppies out. And for this we need you.

We need to find loving homes for these babies, and it’s urgent. In this case, and due to the fact that it would take at least four months for us to organize the paperwork needed to send them to Europe we are going to prioritize adoptions in the USA and Canada.

But first, we need to get the babies out. Have them checked by the vet, etc… etc… then, once we have approved families for them we will organize the logistics of sending them all to their final homes.

Due to the sheer number of puppies this rescue is going to be a logistical challenge, involving tens of people, from the rescuers, to a number of clinics scattered all over town. Add to this that we don’t have enough foster homes in Istanbul and you get the idea.

You can help us in three ways:

1. SHARE this blogpost and seek assistance in your immediate network. Click on LIKE and SHARE…
2. ADOPT/FOSTER: If you are in the USA, Canada or Turkey please offer to become a long term foster or even better to open your home to one of this babies as a final adoptant.
3. SPONSOR: Please, please… Chipin here… that is going to be the only way we will be able to pull this one off.

These babies were born in the gates of hell. Show them that life can be a very different experience, that humans can also be beautiful and kind.

Contact me and apply for adoption: viktor@myletsadopt.com

Here are some more pics of the babies we need to rescue, and it will give you an idea of the brutality they are being forced to endure in that hell hole.

Benji’s operation was a total success… what we couldn’t imagine is that, barely a few hours after waking up from the procedure he would be doing THIS!!!!
Amazing dog.. Amazing…

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Over the last four years you have seen rescues here that were far too complicated to be solved by one single person but that thanks to the combined effort of our entire community ended up in tears… tears of joy.
This is going to be one of those cases.
Meet Zoe. Her story is better told through the powerful combination of images and music. I cannot begin to describe the pain Zoe went through when that train hit her and tore her little body apart. But equally I cannot find words to describe the love and care given to her by her rescuers during her entire healing process.
Zoe is alive today thanks to the sheer healing power of love. Now, as a group, we need to make sure she gets to spend the next 15 years of her life in the perfect home she always deserved.
Zoe is in Greece, but she will fly anywhere in the world her perfect home is found.

Our adoption criteria, as usual:
1. Family MUST have another animal.
2. Zoe must live inside the house, with the family. She won’t be a garden dog.
3. Zoe will be fed a RAW diet (www.rawfed.com)
4. Zoe will live in a non-smoking family.

Contact me: viktor@myletsadopt.com

Please SHARE this post to increase Zoe’s chances to find the perfect home.

For those touched by the music.. here is the translation of the song Mikri Patrida (Small Homeland) by Haris Alexiou…

I didn’t make long journeys,
my years had roots, were trees
which my heart dressed in leaves
and let them blossom in stone.

I didn’t make long journeys.
The people I loved were forests,
my friends were moons and islands,
that my heart thirsted for.

You are my longest journey
You are the night, the day-dream,
my small homeland, my body, my beginning,
you are my land, my breath and air

I didn’t make long journeys,
my heart travelled to dreams, to wet sensations
to breathe the mystic world,
and this is enough for me.

People avoid thinking

People don’t wish to think about difficult issues. They are aware in a distant way that not everything is right with the world. But life is too fast and most people have no time to ask abstract questions such as:

Or…

Who is the first owner of the fluffy coat

The huge Chinese fur industry supplies the world with skins from stray and often owned animals. In China cats and dogs are specially bread as well as a variety of exotic animals. Animals are kept in tiny filthy cages and those wild by natire slowly go mad. Minks are territorial animals who roam free accross areas of a few kilometers. Bread in a cage they circle round and round, hour after hour, day and night until their feet are bloody and raw to the bone. Many animal species share the same fate – all those who have had the misfortune to own a fur coat highly valued by humans.

How does it all work

When the day comes the animals are transported to the slaughter house in small wire cages, about 50cm tall in which 5-6 animals are squashed together. Many of them die on the way. Upon arrival the cages are thrown from the trucks to the ground, breaking fragile bones. Animals are taken out of the cages with sharp metal rods. Humane euthanasia methods are expensive so the animals are most often killed by being beaten or kicked to death, or they are skinned alive. Sometimes, the freshly skinned animal, thrown on the pile of dead bodies, blinks…

And a beautiful coat is born

After similar horrors for many more animals His Magesty Man, the sentient boss of the planet, gets soft leather shoes, bags, wallets, coats, hoods, pet toys! “Hey, is this real fur?” – asks a friend. “Yes, authentic!” – boasts the owner. Amen to the first soul who lived in the fluffy coat.

What you can do

1. Check this page out, this is the oficial page of the protest where you can find details about the event in your country, then join the protest in front of your Chinese Embassy on the 16th of September. The protest is organized in association with animalsaviors.org, an Australian organization, dedicated to ending the Chinese fur trade. The organization has already sent over 1’000’000 petitions to the Chinese government, signed by people from the whole world and this protest is part of a worldwide effort to put an end to this barbarian industry.

2. Send an email to the Chinese embassy in your country. Look online for their contact details. Create your own text or just write: “Stop skinning animals alive.” They will figure out what you mean.

3. Share with friends. Ask them to do as you do.

It is acceptable not to know.
It is understandable not to want to hear.
It is a crime to see and remain silent.

Share.

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You Either Die a Hero, or Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become the Villain

What follows is likely to shock many of our Indian readers but it it won’t be a surprise to anyone involved in international animal welfare, a cause that shares a common sets of heroes and villains all around the world.
Today we are going to pay a close look at someone that through her position in her own organization and her dealings with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is indirectly responsible for the torture and death of thousands of animals in Hyderabad. That person is no other than Amala Akkineni and her organization, the Blue Cross of Hyderabad.

Many of you have asked us, what is the Blue Cross position in the GHMC pound scandal? Why haven’t they made any statement or taken any measures to improve the situation there? The Blue Cross of Hyderabad has known about the atrocities at the pounds the whole time and never, not once, has said or done anything about it.
The answer is simple. Amala Akkineni is no longer the Hero she used to be. Amala and her organization have switched sides.
Amala Akkineni is the head of the Blue Cross of Hyderabad, unfortunately the only animal welfare organization with Animal
Wellfare Board of India (AWBI) approval in Hyderabad to deal with dogs. They have a contract with the GHMC to sterilize 6000 dogs.
Amala Akineni is also an executive member of the AWBI, someone part of the inner circle.
Why didn’t Amala Akkineni stand up for the dogs when she has known all along that this was going on?
Amala, a former movie star herself is married to Nagarjuna, an ageing but still popular idol. Amala, a  rubber doll with a
perfect smile stamped across a beautifully made up face is the darling of the AWBI. A charming puppet that hates activists and anyone that tries to push for any real improvement on the lives of the stray dogs of India. Someone that, like Faust, has sold her soul to the devil, in the hope that, by nor ruffling any feathers she will be able to help a few dogs, whilst tens of thousands live a dire existence of appalling cruelty.
Amala Akkineni will go as far as sabotaging any efforts by volunteers to improve the situations at the pounds and will never raise her voice against any of the atrocities commited by the GHMC for fear of loosing her favored position and her existing contract.
What is the use of such a person in a Monitoring Commitee designed to keep check and balances and stop the atrocities commited on the dogs of Hyderabad?
Mayor Banda Karthika Chandra Reddy has been exposed for what she is, an inefficient, corrupt and rambling fool that from her shabby offices at the GHMC will prefer to issue ridiculous denials instead of taking any real steps to improve a situation that brings shame and embarrassment not only to her city, but the country as a whole. It is now time for Amala Kineni to leave the monitoring commission and her position at the AWBI.
The solution to all of this torture and death is simple. The correct implementation of ABC. It is obvious that the current set of players is too corrupt and complacent to take any concrete steps. So we must force those players to step down.

Please Sign the petition and demand the resignation of Amala Akkineni from her position at the Animal Welfare Board of India.
Alternatively, you can drop her an email on a.akkineni@gmail.com leave a message at their Facebook Page or, even better, send a quick SMS to her personal mobile: +91 9989 944 106 and politely ask her to resign from her position at the AWBI and leave her place to someone possessed of the integrity and character necessary for this very important job.

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