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.

Last week Turkey was shocked by  the gruesome murder of a little stray cat in Bornova, Izmir. His name was Yamuk.

Yamuk’s death was brutal,  painful in its randomness and, unlike the deaths of so many, it became public, for anyone to see. The killer Ufuk Gunaydin, was arrested and released after  paying a fine of 657 Turkish Liras (close to 450 American Dollars).

This event brought memories of another murder, one that took place over a year ago, in Istanbul, the killing of Ebru, the dog of the Marmara Hotel. In that ocassion there were no cameras to film the horrific actions, but the result was the same, a helpless animal dying in pain and reminding each and everyone of us that there are killers amongst us.

Turkish society has finally awaken to the bitter reality of animal cruelty, and stands united in condemnation, in demand for stronger laws to punish animal cruelty.

The media is finally listening, and the legislator in Ankara has got the message. The current state of affairs is not to be tolerated any longer.

The problem is, laws must apply to everyone. As of today, the biggest perpetrator of animal cruelty in this country are the municipalities themselves. Rogue Mayors all across the nation coninue to ignore the Law and continue organising poisoning campaigns. In most cities, starting by Istanbul, animal shelters are nothing but massive concentration camps for dogs run by municipalities and shelter managers who seem to be there for nothing but releasing their sadistic impulses.

It is time for the Mayors of this country to understand that the situation of the animals in their cities is not just a problem to manage, it is one of the most evident and obvious signs of their failures or success as leaders of the society.

So far most of them, starting by Kadir Topbas, the Mayor of Istanbul Greater Municipality are failing miserably.

Turkey has one of the world’s most progressive Animal Rights Laws. The entire country is No-Kill, something that places us at the level of Germany. The demonstration of Saturday in Istanbul, the biggest show of support this country has ever seen  shows that Turkey is ready for change.

Today I am filled with the hope that maybe, just maybe, one day Turkey will be regarded as a place where animals are treated with respect and compassion, and Mayors across the nation will understand that society holds them accountable.

Ghandi wrote: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. I am sure each and every attendant to the demonstration yesterday will agree with me that, by those standards Turkey is still near the bottom of the ladder.

Change is at the reach of this generation, we are in the right path but we must all get to work.

For the animals

Viktor Larkhill

We love to tell a good story, a successful story, a story that fills up with hope.

But today we won’t.

Today I’m going to tell you one of my most painful stories in animal rescue. I’m doing this so that you get a glimpse of how it is to do what we do, every day and so that you understand why our adoption rules are what they are and why we cannot make exceptions.

Missy was rescued by one of the SHKD volonteers two years ago. She was a a wonderful sweet gentle and kind female dog. She arrived to the shelter with signs of sexual violence. She had been raped.
The rapist chose its victim well.  She was too kind and gentle to fight back.
For months SHKD worked on her, made her recover from her ordeal, brought her confidence up to speed.
Let’s Adopt! had just been created.. we had just a few members, lots of ideas.
I put up Missy‘s pictures on my profile and sent an email to the 400 people or so that made up the group in those days.
A few hours later I received an email from a member. His name was Hakan Bozkurt. Nice guy. told me how he had a dog but had died of old age and how he missed him so much.. wanted to adopt another animal for his child. Any breed would do.
I liked him.
We met at the shelter, he came with his kid and a friend.. they were lovely people, animal lovers, kind and sweet. They liked Missy and Missy liked them.
We got his details, explained all about the dog, he had experience, we trusted him.
So Missy jumped on the car, wagging her short tail, one of the happiest days in her life.
We called that night.. Missy was sleeping with the kid. He sent us some pictures… wonderful!
One week later we called to check how things were going… the guy answer the phone. He was drunk.
He told us that Missy had been missing for three days. She was lost.
Apparently her six year old kid was walking her on the street without a leash, a truck passed, she got scared and run away.
He had done NOTHING to look for her. Nothing. Life continued as normal.
We spent three days looking for Missy all over the area. We checked every shelter, every street, we put posters everywhere…
Nothing.
I would love to think Missy is still alive and in a nice home with a wonderful family, but thinking so would be delusional.
Chances are Missy is dead. And if she is not dead she is trying to survive eating garbage in some construction dump, or dumped at the forest by one of the municipalities in this vast sprawling city.
So Missy was dead… nothing I could do about it.
But what I could do was to learn the lesson and to create a system that minimizes adoption risk. To create a set of rules that secured successful adoptions whilst at the same time helping us enlarge the community. And that is precisely what I did.

This is how we came up with our three basic adoption rules:

1. Family MUST have an existing animal.
2. Animal MUST live inside the home, not on the garden.
3. Animal MUST be fed raw.

Each and every adoption in Let’s Adopt! must be approved by me, and every time we screen a family I have Missy on my mind.

Missy was a failure and a painful lesson… but we learned from it, and created a system that saved thousands.

We must be ready to accept failures if we want to move forward…. and this applies to all of us, in all we do.

Never forget that.

As most of you know we have undertaken the campaign to save a Canadian dog, Brindi.

Our posts are being translated to french and turkish and spread all over the internet in an global effort to save not only one but many animals, in Turkey and North America. The campaign is being extremely successful and we are proud to be part of it.

I am very pleased at the way Let’s Adopt! has risen to the challenge.

This has made me reflect on the issues currently affecting our turkish group and how a large number of turkish animal lovers still live in a strange combination of isolation and paranoia.

We need to make some changes in our approach. This is why Let’s Adopt (Turkey) will have two main objectives from now on.

a) The rehoming of blind and handicapped animals, both in Turkey and abroad

b) Educating the turkish community of animal lovers not only about issues affecting turkish animals but, most importantly, about issues affecting animals in other countries.

With this change of approach we will achieve a double goal:

1. We will guide those turkish animal lovers that, because of language reasons, dont have a full perspective of many issues.
2. We will expand our international community which, in turn, will become more familiar with Turkish issues.

Internet and social media is all about openness… it is time for the Turkish animal welfare community to become more open and knowledgeable, this has always been our approach but from today we will increase our efforts to truly offer a new perspective to those who have looked at the problem in isolation.

Best

Viktor Larkhill

Crocodile torture in Istanbul

The post of today is one of those surprising cases that every once in a while it makes it to the national press.

Unfortunately it happens very very often in Turkey.

Kokorec is a sort of national dish.. the slow roast of lamb intestines, mixed with spices. They say is delicious…

For the last few days, patrons and customers to the Golden Kokorec restaurant in Ortakoy are astonished by a surprising sight.

A baby African crocodile, barely 80 cms long lays on a makeshift aquarium, with absolutely no space to move. His condition is dramatic, the restaurant owners have placed two powerful lamps on top of him that are, literally, roasting him alive.

EFE

Every few minutes the crocodile (we have named him EFE) slides himself into the water and tries to refresh himself.. then he goes up and continues the circle of torture.

Regardless of the atrocious conditions in which this animal is being forced to live, what is equally concerning is his future.

African crocodiles grow up to be several meters long. Surely in a few months the length of this animal will surpass the length of the restaurant himself.

We are about to witness a tragedy right in the middle of Istanbul.

Unless the authorities take immediate control of this situation sooner or later there will be a loss of life.

Let’s Adopt has proven very effective in solving cases of animal abuse in the past, most importantly, it has worked hand in hand with the press in solving some seemingly unsolvable problems.

Let’s solve this one together.

Please call the Orman Cevre Mudurlugu on 0212 2625756, ask for Veteriner Gokhan Bey and immediately report the situation at the Golden Kokorec restaurant in Ortakoy. This is not time to file official requests. There is a better way, direct citizen involvement.

Here are the details of the restaurant:

Golden Kokoreç
Mecidiye Mah. Dereboyu Cad. No:3 ORTAKÖY / İSTANBUL
0-212-3277331
goldenhorn@restauranttv.com

Let’s Adopt! members and members of the press… Let’s save EFE TODAY!

Please the Orman Cevre Mudurlugu on 0212 2625756, ask for Veteriner Gokhan Bey.

Please share this post in our profiles and send it to those who may be able to help.

Viktor Larkhill
v.larkhill@googlemail.com

Golden Kokorec stupidity

Bella

Merhaba…
İşte Bella’nın resimleri…

Ona deli gibi bir kalıcı veya geçici ev arıyoruz.

Şu anda bir klinikte, bir kafesin içinde kalıyor…
Sadece 3 kilocuk bir köpek bu… Lütfen yardım edin!
Lütfen hemen benimle bağlantıya geçin.

v.larkhill@googlemail.com

—

Bella

Hello…

Here we have new pictures of Bella.

We are desperately looking for a home for her, final or foster.

Today she has been dumped at a veterinary clinic. She will be living on a cage from now on.

At least help us by fostering. For God sake, this is not a Great Dane, she is only three kilos, please help.

Please contact me urgently.

Viktor

V.larkhill@googlemail.com

Lina

Dear friends,

This is Lina, a gorgeous female Dobermann.
We rescued her from Adana, a city in the South of Turkey.
Lina belonged to a family who used her for breeding and then threw her away. She was found wandering on the brink of starvation in the outskirts of the city.
Lina was rescued by one of our members who opened her home and nursed her back to health. Unfortunately it was impossible to find a suitable home for her in Adana so we brought her to Istanbul.
You see.. Lina is not the stereotypical Dobermann preferred by the usual brutes. Lina is a kind and friendly dog, who has the manners and soul of a golden retriever and who believes she is a lap dog. Her favorite past time is to play with children and other animals and when she is tired she loves to lay down on the sofa and watch TV or simply, sleep.
Lina is a truly amazing dog, and one who was thrown onto the streets precisely for that reason, because she was too good.

We would specially recommend Lina to families with children who want their kids to grow up having the presence of a wonderful animal in the home.

contact: v.larkhill@googlemail.com

Lina

Sevgili Arkadaşlar,

Bu Lina, muhteşem dişi bir Doberman.

Onu Türkiye’nin güneyinde bulunan Adana şehrinden kurtardık.

Lina onu üretim için kullanıp sonra da atan bir aileye aitti. Açlıktan ölme sınırında amaçsızca dolaşır biçimde şehir banliyösünde bulundu.

Lina ona evinin kapılarını açıp sağlığına kavuşturan bir üyemiz tarafından bulundu. Ne yazık ki Adana’da ona uygun bir yuva bulunması mümkün olmadı bu nedenle onu buraya İstanbul’a getirdik.

Gördüğünüz gibi…Lina bilindik zalimlerin tercih edeceği türde stereotipik bir doberman değil. Bir golden retrieverın ruhuna ve davranışlarına sahip, kendini kucak köpeği sanan nazik ve arkadaş canlısı bir köpek . En sevdiği eğlence çocuklar ve diğer hayvanlarla oynayıp yorulduğunda kanepeye uzanıp televizyon seyretmek veya uyumak.

Lina gerçekten inanılmaz bir köpek ve sokaklara atılmış olma nedeni de tam olarak bu; çok iyi olması.

Lina’yı özellikle çocukları evde mükemmel bir hayvanın varlığı ile büyütmeyi isteyen çocuklu ailelere öneriyoruz.

contact: v.larkhill@googlemail.com

Sahiplenme koşulları şunlar:
- Evinizde mutlaka bir hayvanınız daha olmak zorunda (balık, kaplumbağa, kuş, hamster, börtü böcek sayılmıyor)
- Hayvanlarınıza onlar ailenizin bir üyesiymişçesine evinizin içinde bakmalısınız, bahçeye atıp unutmak diye birşey sözkonusu olamaz.

Başvurmak için bize 250 kelimeyi geçmeyecek bir mesajla aşağıdaki bilgileri vermeniz gerekiyor:

1) Yaşadığınız yerle ilgili bilgi (ev, daire, bahçe vs..)
2) Bulunduğunuz şehir ve semt
3) Şu anda baktığınız hayvanlarla ilgili ve/veya hayvan bakma tecrübenizle ilgili bilgi
4) İrtibat detaylarınız

HASDAL PROTESTO

Zamanı Geldi

Sevgili arkadaşlar,

Ellibeş küçük bebeği soğukkanlılıkla öldürenlere onları unutmadığımızı göstermenin zamanı geldi.

Hasdal İBB Kısırlaştırma Merkezi’ne toplanarak masum canların zalimce alınmasını protesto etmek uzere biz katılın.

Hadi bu günü sonsuza kadar unutulmayacak bir gün yapalım.

Hadi ölüm ve işkenceden zevk alanlara sesimizi duyurup o kana susamış kararları almadan önce bir kere daha düşünmelerini sağlayalım.

Hadi herkese duyuralım ki bu ülkenin sokak hayvanları sahipsiz değildir.

Sahip Çıkalım! onların ailesidir.

Ulusal ve uluslararası medyaya dahil olan arkadaşlarımız katılmaya davetlidir.

Not: Hepimiz belediye barınaklarında süregelen ölüm ve işkenceye olan tavrımızı göstermek üzere siyah giyiyoruz.

MAP HASDAL

The time has come…

Dear Friends,

The time has come to tell those who killed 55 little babies in cold blood that they are not forgotten.

Join us at Hasdal Greater Municipality Neutering Facility to protest the vicious murder of innocent lives.
Let us make this day a day to remember, forever.
Let those who take pleasure in killing and torturing hear our voice and think twice before they make that bloodthirsty decision again.
Let everyone know that the stray animals of our country are not without families.
Let’s Adopt! is their family.

Our members from the national and international press are invited to join us.
Please share this in your Facebook as other platforms. This blog has THREE share buttons.  Use them.
PS We are all wearing black to mark our grief in the continuous killing and torture of animals in municipal shelters.

MAXY!!!

Kuvvetle muhtemel, dünyadaki en tatlı bebek…
Henüz 10 günlükken kurtarıldı…miniminnacıktı, ismini MAXY koyduk!!! Umut ediyoruz ki, bu onu hayata döndürecek…
Maxy’nin iyi bir yuva bulabilmesi için bize yardım edin…
Lütfen profillerinizde paylaşın…

v.larkhill@googlemail.com

—

MAXY!!!

Quite possibly the cutest pup in the… world…
He was rescued when he was only 10 days old… he was so mini we called him MAXY!!! in the hope this would help him move forward in life..
Help us find a good home for him..
Please share it in your profiles..

Contact me:
v.larkhill@googlemail.com