Disappearing Dogs

Once again I need to write about the situation with the street dogs in Didim...they are still disappearing. Still no one is owning up to culling or removing them, which is clearly unbelievably stupid, as animal lovers of all nationalities are aware of what is going on, and everyone is quite sure the council are doing it. No, there is no proof (YET), but the governor made it quite clear he wanted all the street dogs removed from Altinkum, even after the man from the ministry told the council this is ILLEGAL and cannot be done. Bear in mind that the governor wanted all the dogs incarcerated/imprisoned at the local shelter, ie approx minimum of 100 dogs in a space only suitable for about 30, and the shelter staff, vet, assistant, and charity chariman and Gen sec signed an official statement to say that no already neutered dogs would be taken from the streets and put there. The ministry man also told us that if any dogs that were already neutered appeared at the shelter, we should immediately open the back gate and let them free. The governor was presumably informed of this...consequently, he was seemingly unable to round up the dogs and stash them there, so has found another solution. Just as much illegal, they are being collected at 4 or 5 am, taken somewhere and killed. Or they are being dumped somewhere, presumably where there is no food or water, so they will die a slow death, and far enough away that they can't find their way back.

People are mourning the loss of their friends all over Didim and Altinkum. This is truly very shocking and a totally barbaric practice....and completely pointless too, as dogs being territorial, will only move into any place where there are not already some dogs, so in a couple of months the situation will be worse, as there will be just as many, but the ones that are being destroyed are already neutered, the new arrivals may not be!! What a complete fiasco, and waste of council money neutering them all in the first place if they are then going to be destroyed!!
On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning at 5am, a van was apparently seen by a resident who had got up to use the bathroom, at the back of Dolphin Square, catching and removing street cats...well, cats anyway, I doubt whether anyone would discriminate between those with and those without owners, as they didn't when the last big dog cull happened about 18 months ago, when approx 200 dogs disappeared in about 6 weeks. If the person who saw this van has any more information, ie, what was written on the side of it, etc, please please get in touch with me asap. Do the council really think that the cats are aggressive?? Most of them leap about 10 feet into the air when a human passes 'their' rubbish-bin home, where they are frantically trying to eat a potato skin or tomato covered in tealeaves.

To stop this happening we must go legal, and to do this we must have proof. We MUST have some photos of whoever it is, catching, shooting, darting, or killing animals. We need to find the mass grave, as there will no doubt be one somewhere.

4 well-loved dogs disappeared from Yesilkent the same night. One, known to everyone as bigboy, had been loved and fed, with his 3 pals for about 4 years. The local residents, both Brits and Turks, spent all day wednesday looking for them, and both nationality's people were crying profusley at the loss of their friends. How can this be happening in 2008? It is like something from a horror film! It is absolutely UNBELIEVABLE, that even after new laws have been passed, animals are STILL being killed. Not really even an excuse that they are aggressive, as at least 60 have gone, and there were only one or two aggressive ones, and THEY were only aggressive because they had finally had enough of locals hitting them, throwing rocks, waving sticks, feet and bags at them. The worm turns!! And as it was also recently pointed out to me, if being aggressive and hurting a human in some way is a reason for a human to judge and decide to kill a dog, they all the humans that rape, attack, stab and murder should also be being 'euthanised'!!!
PEOPLE, PLEASE BE VIGILANT, WE NEED PROOF, WE NEED PHOTOS, VIDEO EVIDENCE, WITNESSES. CAR NUMBER PLATES, WHOSE CAR, ETC. IF YOU HEAR SHOOTING AT NIGHT, PLEASE TRY AND FIND OUT WHERE IT IS COMING FROM, IF YOU SUSPECT SOMEONE NEAR YOU IS SHOOTING DOGS, YOU WILL HEAR DOGS HOWLING IN PAIN, PLEASE TRY AND GET SOME EVIDENCE SO WE CAN STOP THIS BARBARIC PRACTICE IN DIDIM ONCE AND FOR ALL.