Help Saving Street Animals In Turkey

About us

Although stray animals in Turkey are under the responsibility of municipalities, due to insufficient equipment and insufficient human resources, volunteers and associations play an active role in rescue efforts such as treatment, castration and feeding of stray animals. The founders of Bir Pati De Sen Tut worked voluntarily and individually since 2016. To help and rescue more animals, they decided to establish a non-profit organisation. In March 2022, bir pati de sen tut was registered and became a legally approved non-profit organisation.

Please hit the DONATE NOW button to make a change in their lives. The amount really does not matter, please help as much as you can. If you cannot donate then PLEASE share my link with everyone!
Thank you for your support and caring for animals!
You can continue to read if you want a broader insight into the situation about stray animals in Turkey and how I hit the bottleneck.

Stray animals in Turkey
Turkey is densely populated with stray animals. I know we are quite famous and admired for our well-fed and cared-for stray cats and dogs, who find shelter in stores etc. But the truth is, those who live in big cities and animal-friendly neighborhoods are mostly spayed/neutered and rabies-vaccinated, whereas those who happened to have been born, left, and live in small towns, villages, or slums are suffering terrible conditions. Whether in big cities or in small towns, finding food and shelter remains a great challenge for stray animals in Turkey. Also, we don’t have an organized governmental body to care for strays when they get injured or sick. Although a significant percentage of the Turkish population loves animals, animal abuse -sexual and physical violence- is not infrequent at all.

Animal-related legal obligations in Turkey
Unlike many developed countries, we do not have a centralized system of animal control nor a law on animal rights imposing penal sanctions. Perpetrators of physical and sexual violence against animals usually get away with it without being subject to persecution. In fact, local governments are responsible for the stray cats and dogs living in their administrative division: they have to spay and neuter them, vaccinate them against rabies, and tag them. However, the majority fails to perform such duties due to the lack of necessary medical equipment and insufficient human resource. In addition, not all municipalities have facilities tailored and designed for stray animals. Most of them have shelters but they are nothing short of death camps.

Who takes care of stray animals in Turkey
This is where individual volunteers, or charities like us step in. Volunteers and charities in many cities or towns undertake local governments’ duties regarding stray animals. As municipalities come short of providing qualified veterinarians, medical equipment, and suitable nursing environment or animal care centers whatsoever, we volunteers have to resort to private veterinary clinics, most of the time at our own expense.
Luckily enough, many veterinarians are aware of the situation with stray animals in Turkey and how rescuers struggle to cover veterinary bills and find donations, so they are willing to help us with the payments in the form of discounts or installments. But as Turkey’s economy is getting worse and worse and, as a result, medical equipment and procedures become more and more expensive and donators are no longer able to allocate money for charity purposes, I run into a stone wall.

What we do

• We have stray cats and dogs living in multiple neighborhood spayed/neutered and treated.
• Almost 60% of the time, we cooperate with the local government for castration and ovariohysterectomy operations, which is free of charge. But after the animals have surgeries at the municipal facilities, we have to take them to private polyclinics so that they can stay there during the postoperative period, which is not free of charge.
• We have to work with private veterinary clinics for all treatments because of the insufficiency of qualified medical staff and medical equipment provided at municipal facilities.
• We feed stray cats and dogs where I live and in adjacent neighborhoods, which span a large area.
• We make shelters for cats and dogs and place them out around the neighborhood so that they can stay warm and protected from cold during winter.
• The rescue efforts we made are not limited to several neighborhoods but also extend to animals from other neighborhoods and even cities (For example, it is not uncommon for us to wake up to urgent calls or messages from individuals we don’t know but who know us and ask us to go and help that injured/sick/orphan cat or dog they found on the street. If we are lucky, they take the animal to the veterinarian we referred them to when we tell them to do so. The poor animal gets admitted to the clinic under my our charities and 90% of the time the poor us pays the veterinary bills.)
• We make sure every individual animal we rescue receives all available core vaccines (rabies, combination, feline leukemia, etc.) and antiparasitic treatment.
• We share ads on various social media to find homes for strays. If we are lucky we find someone to foster them until they find a permanent home. But most of the time we have to resort to pet hotels: they stay there until we find them a forever home and during this period they get vaccinated and spayed/neutered.
• We are extremely meticulous in the adoption process. We are very picky about the candidates and we stay in touch with the adopters.
• We rehome cats/dogs to families not only living in Turkey but also abroad. I don’t demand adoption fees unless the animal has to travel overseas.

What we need

• Cat food and dog food for the strays
• Medical supplies to use in case of injuries, illnesses, etc.
• Foster homes for cats and dogs
• Sponsors for boarding and vaccination expenses
• Sponsors for veterinary bills

Current situation

• We work with 5 veterinary clinics and 3 pet hotels in 3 different cities.
• We currently owe about TRY 70.000 (USD 5000) to the veterinary clinics, including the payment to be made this month and the charges accrued from the previous months, combined.
• Each month, I have to pay about TRY 15000 (USD 1000) to the pet hotels for the cats and dogs we board there.

We are one of many charities in Turkey who do their best to provide a better life to stray animals. So far, we managed to do it alone with the help and contribution of a bunch of donators. But we are not able to cover the expenses anymore.
VISIT our Instagram profile @birpatidesentutdernegi for detailed information about the cats and dogs I put up for adoption or who need veterinary/boarding sponsors as well as the receipts of payments made to the clinics/hotels with the donations.
PLEASE hit the DONATE NOW button to make a change in their lives. The amount doesn’t really matter, please help as much as you can. If you cannot donate then PLEASE share my link with everyone!
If you are interested in adopting a cat or a dog from Turkey, you can get in contact with me via:

email: [email protected]
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birpatidesentutdernegi/
Phone: +905065726082

Thank you for your support and caring for our animal friends.