KAPSA and the street animals of Kalkan urgently need your help

[itstime]

Hoca I accept your explanation that your earlier post was tongue in cheek however in my opinion was in extremely poor taste. Not sure how I''m expected to "lighten up" over comments advocating culling any animals. The comparison to seals, which I''m sure , if you''ve seen any film footage of that particular practice, was particularly abhorrent. May I respectfully suggest that if you feel the need to make these kind of tongue in cheek comments that you make it clearer that they are not seriously held beliefs therefore avoiding any potential distress and misunderstanding for those reading.

Now maybe we can get back to discussing how to assist the people who carry out the much needed work with all the street animals in Kalkan.

[kalkanbelle]

Hoca at least you have given an explanation for your callousness but I still think the reference to seals was unsettling.  However, you do not mention what happened to the other 3 puppies your dog gave birth to except to say you don''t know what happened to them?  Did you rehome them or chuck them out to fend for themselves?  Also why did you not take back the puppy you gave to the caring English lady if she had abandoned it and rehome it elsewhere?  You do seem to contradict yourself as you profess to be an animal lover and your actions regarding the stray dog and providing places for neutering are to your credit but to go on to say that destroying the ones that don''t have caring homes is the only solution baffles me!  KAPSA has given an explantion saying that putting animals down does not solve the problem and the only long term solution is neutering and education and whilst I agree that the street dogs can be a nuisance they do not have an alternative but to wander the streets looking for food.  Hopefully KAPSA will have more resources in future to tackle the problem of winter feedling and neutering and with the help of willing supporters and contributions from those who care will help to solve this problem but it is going to take time.

[kalcamp]

I thought that the neutering and innoculations were taken care of by the Fethiye vets, who come twice a year to check kalkan''s animals, this is funded by an organisation already in operation in Fethiye. They even take the dogs who are known to be strays to the dogs home in Fethiye.
  Kalkans dogs are not diseased consequently nor distressed, a lot of the dogs around in the day return to their owners at night. our dog does, he has a great life  and is well cared for.
 

[Hoca]

All the puppies were found homes and as i say only one to my knowledge is on the streets, i have already got two dogs i don''t have the space or time for three dogs i live in an apartment not a villa with grounds i also live in town and any one who has dogs will tell you it is difficult to live amongst Turkish people and keep dogs as well. I think there will be more dogs and cats dumped in Kalkan this winter than ever before. Just one other thing if we were talking rats, mice, pigeon''s or sea gulls would a programme of capture and destroy still sound so bad.

[Queenie]

Hi Kalcamp,

I think you have your wires crossed a little.

Although the Kalkan cats and dogs are treated at Fethiye or by vets in Fethiye, it is not a Fethiye organisation that pays for it and never has been. It is KAPSA, and before their official registration this year, the same group of Kalkan people who have been organising it for a number of years.

So in essence, nothing will change, but I think what Saskia is asking for is more money to continue with what has always been done.

Hope this clarifies a few things

Kind regards

[Lougie]

Personally speaking being a little afraid of dogs it''s a big problem, sometimes I have to avoid going somewhere if there is a number of dogs down a street etc, I would not like to see any harm come to any animal but for those of us who have a fear of dogs it''s not nice, there is a huge amount of dogs in Kalkan, far more than any other resorts I''ve been to in Turkey.

What if someone gets bitten by one of these dogs, they may be friendly dogs but dogs can turn nasty especially in packs, what if a child gets hurt, I would rather see children be able to roam free & play safe than a dog!

I do not now the solution to this problem, I think it''s a little bit irresponsible for people to let pet dogs wonder round the streets, Would you do that in England, what if it got ran over, would you blame the driver?? Also, why can''t the strays be treated like they are in this country, why can''t they be captured & put in dog homes & be re-homed to responsible pet owners, but this is not England it''s Turkey!??

Hope this doesn''t cause offence, just giving an opinion from a different point of view.

[Queenie]

I think if this was England and not Turkey, we probably wouldn''t be having this discussion, but as you quite rightly pointed out, it isn''t!

[saskia]

Thank you everyone for your comments and offers of support and health
In response to the question about direct debits from England by Isis and Dawn T we are looking into the possibility of opening a Kapsa bank account in the UK because as many of you will know charges for transferring money from there to Turkey is quite high and if a direct debit was set up you would be charged for every transaction which would not be cost effective. You could set up a standing order from a Turkish bank account though if you wished. Alternatively, why not put away a little each month and transfer it or better still bring it with you when you come to Kalkan. It seems a waste to be spending money on bank charges that could go directly to Kapsa.

Jon re censorship I personally think that it is important that everyone should be able to express their opinions on this subject. There is after all no law that says that everyone should love animals, and I think everyone agrees that the number of dogs in Kalkan is rising to problematic proportions, which is precisely the reason for this appeal. We need to do more now than ever before to ensure that the numbers don''t increase further and this means educating the people in the surrounding areas about the importance of neutering their own animals and indeed ensuring that we neuter as many stray dogs as possible too.
Re the dogs home in Fethiye, although they do a fantastic job and are undoubtedly the best dogs home in Turkey they stopped taking animals from Kalkan some time ago because they too work on a system of ‘neuter and return’ so any dogs we took were neutered and put on the streets of Fethiye which already has a high dog population of it''s own.
There is a ‘dogs home’ near Kaş which I believe is situated on a piece of land provided by the municipality, however, that is all they provide. There is no funding for neutering except from volunteers in Kaş and the food is provided in the form of raw meet thrown to the dogs by the abattoir next door on a somewhat irregular basis which causes a great many fights among the dogs. I have not personally seen the place but I have seen the results of some of these fights when volunteers have brought dogs to be treated by the vets we use. In my opinion keeping dogs long term in a dogs home is not a viable solution, rather just an ‘out of sight out of mind’ policy by the relevant municipality.
While I don’t want to get into an argument with Hoca about his opinions as I think enough has been said on that subject, I do think it is a bit naïve of him to think that more dogs are being left in Kalkan because of the setting up of Kapsa. Last year, before Kapsa was formed we had at least 50 dogs and puppies left here, luckily about half of them were homed with the help of the vets in Fethiye and the dog''s home. I would be surprised if the people from neighbouring villages that bring in animals and callously dump them here know, or even care whether we have an association to protect the animals. All they care about is getting them out from under their feet, who knows how many other animals they leave in other villages or up in the mountains!?
Re the subject of culling, at the risk of boring you I would like to leave you with further quotes from SHKD and The World Health Organization:

Stray dog populations anywhere depend solely on the amount of food available. Nature adjusts the population to the carrying capacity of the territory. If just one fertile female escapes being killed or captured she can breed up to 67,000 offspring in 6 years. That is why killing dogs can never succeed unless every single female is exterminated. That is why Turkish streets are still full of dogs.

If however the carrying capacity of an area is filled with sterile animals the population will gradually die out, providing no fertile dogs can infiltrate from surrounding areas

"Removal and killing of dogs should never be considered as the most effective way of dealing with a problem of surplus dogs in the community: it has no effect whatsoever on the root cause of the problem." – Guidelines for Dog Population Management, W.H.O. Geneva 1990 (page 74).

"In none of the study areas did the elimination of dogs by any method have any significant long term effect on dog population size." –Report of W.H.O. Consultation on Dog Ecology Studies related to Rabies Control, Geneva, 22-25 February 1988 (page 11).
To know more: please download the document Solution to Turkey’s stray dog problem.

[sally]

I once came close to being attacked by a pack of stray feral dogs in France & that has made me very wary of stray dogs.

And I am even more wary of dogs in Turkey due to the risk of rabies, which no one has yet addressed.

Is rabies prevalent in Turkey & Kalkan?

I assume everyone knows what one has to endure if one should be bitten by a rabid/suspected rabid dog?

Packs of dogs are not something to be taken lightly & I have seen groups of 5+ dogs in Kalkan.

[itstime]

Some good news for a change  http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=113780

[Queenie]

Thanks itstime, what a lovely article.

[saskia]

Hi sally,
Yes there are incidents of rabies in Turkey but I have asked vets in Fethiye and KaÅŸ when the last case of Rabies was seen in Kalkan and all said that they had not known of any cases in Kalkan since they had been in practice - and for one vet that means 15 years. Apparently the ministry of agriculture keep a record of all cases of rabies throughout Turkey so I will try to find out more details if I can.

[Hoca]

Loungie you are not alone a vast amount of Turkish people are very afraid of even the smallest of dogs which is why our two are kept with us nearly all the time and only wonder by our flat when we are on the steps. To loose your dogs out all day to have a wonderful life annoying every one else then pat them on the head when they get home seems a little strange. There is no easy solution but how many dogs this year will survive to next year then so on and so on. Well fed fit strays pose a bigger problem than subservant less healthy types. So soon the day will come when some body is badly hurt by a stray then people will take a different view until then just keep filling the streets.

[holidayfever]

Didn''t really want to get involved with this as we did not go to Kalkan this year so unsure just how many strays are around. I can say however that returning from Akyaka and Turunc I did not notice any stray dogs around ,a few with owners but no strays like past years we have spent in Kalkan so not sure why it is different there.
Where we were staying the lady who ran the complex also ran a charity shop in Turunc for the street cats they have 2 feeding stations in Turunc and feed the street cats twice a day, they also get them sterilised to stop the numbers getting out of control, as she said they don''t  sterilise all the cats as they need cats as they play an important part of keeping down vermin. I can understand that the cats do a great job, street dogs do not for fill this or any other role. As an animal lover I don''t know the answer, but to all trying to help thanks and good luck

[foreverkalkan]

I have to agree with you Hoca and Lougie so lets get the pets off the streets and see what we have left, I have no idea which ones are pets or strays but if some are pets at least that will reduce the number. I saw a huge dog near the beach a couple of weeks ago turn very nasty to a woman who was just passing by, it was scary.

[DawnT]

Hi Saskia

I would like to make a suggestion to all owners who rent out their properties.  Why don''t  we all have a KAPSA collection box in our properties and suggest that when our guests leave, they leave any change behind.  This way, not only are they contributing to charity, but they aren''t taking home all the loose change that gets thrown into a drawer somewhere at home.

I''m in Kalkan from 16-28 Sept and would like to meet up with you to collect a collection box.


Dawn
(actually this was my hubbies idea, which i stole!!!) my idea was to save all the pennies and two P''s

[kalcamp]

So really this is the responsibility of the mayor,municpality,belediye to enforce the law 5199. I would much rather pressure was exerted on the belediye to do their duty regarding strays in accordance with the law, as kapsa are in communication with the mayor about this surely the belediye should at least agree to pay for this, even if they''re too busy to arrange the vets etc. What is their reason for not paying?

[Hoca]

Was any one on the streets last night about ten o''clock to see 8-10 dogs fighting outside the moonlight bar sending customers running into shops? Nice advert for this town. By the way do all the people that think removing the strays from the streets is wrong or will they be in England all winter with it''s dog free streets. Just a thought

[msr]

We have just returned from 2 weeks at our villa at Club Patara. At Club Patara there are a couple who look after the cats, about 25 which he feels is a reasonable number. He pays for the neutering out of his own pocket and also vets bills for injured and sick cats.  We have had the villa for 4 years and this year is the first time we have not had a ''soup kitchen'' on our terrace! Also in Kalkan itself there is a noticeable difference in the cat population , many of them having been neutered and adopted by local people.  But to keep this level of care costs money and  the organisation is being run by a very dedicated band of people, not just in the summer but all year round, 24 hours a day, with many also working long hours as well. Winters are obviously difficult, the population drops, restaurants shut and without KAPSA many of these animals would starve.

At present the dog population is more of a concern than the cats. Down by the harbour in the evenings we often witnessed dogs fighting, and once two start this then escalates into the ''pack'' scenario. Not pleasant and can be quite frightening to witness. If this is happening in the summer months winter will be even more worrying.

KAPSA have now created a Turkish bank account which makes it easier for people to pay money into rather than transferring from England with costs involved.  Another idea which might be useful is to have large containers outside the supermarkets in the summer months, with the caption ''help feed the street animals in winter''. The idea being when you shop for groceries add a packet of cat or dog food to your shopping and then put in the container. This way it would help alleviate some of the pressures faced by KAPSA for winter feeding. I know a lot of the KAPSA group pay for this out of their own pockets.

As a community we have bought or holidayed in Kalkan because we love the atmosphere and the people. I feel it is also partly our  responsibility to help KAPSA  on a very worthy mission. It is in everybodys interests to help the street animals, it is a ''win win'' situation if the animals are neutered, for residents and visitors alike.

We have in our information pack in the villa details about KAPSA and DawnT''s idea of a collection box in the villa is a good one. If most people adopted this it could make quite a difference and every little bit helps.

The more people involved in this the quicker the outcome that KAPSA hope for can be reached.  I know a lot of people on this forum are concerned about the street animals welfare and it would be rewarding to see us all pull together and do our bit, however small that may be ,I know it will be gratefully received.

KAPSA must be thanked for the never ending workload that they take on, without these people, Kalkan would not be the place that it is, it would be overrun by a feral population of cats and dogs!

[kalkanbelle]

What an excellent idea to have boxes outside supermarkets to collect tins of food for winter feeding and if money boxes could be provided by villa and apartment owners this would certainly add to the fund.  I would be more than happy to have one in our villa and know others who would too so if anyone knows where we could get a box that would be a start.  We could then pay any money collected directly into KAPSAs account when we are in Kalkan or give it to someone responsible for collecting it.  I agree that all who love Kalkan and are concerned about the numbers of street dogs should contribute and help KAPSA achieve their goals.  This problem has to be dealt with sooner rather than later and it all boils down to funding this charity.  Has anyone got any other good ideas about how we could collect money or food for winter?