Volunteers struggle to find homes for animals in Türkiye

Volunteers are still struggling to find homes for displaced pets in southeastern Turkey, more than two months after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the region.

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According to veterinarian Gorkym Agdash, his Meyako organization has helped about 200 animals in the area. He said most of the pets displaced by the earthquake had already been returned to their owners, while those for whom the organization could not find previous owners had been taken home by volunteers.

The condition of the animals in the earthquake zone was not at all encouraging. They were in a state of fear and shock in the first weeks, then hunger was their biggest problem,” Ağdaş wrote in a message to the Media Line.

Miyako, which provides shelter for stray and abandoned animals, is working in some of the areas hardest hit by the disaster, including Hatay Province and the towns of Kahramanmaraş, Adiyaman and Malatya. Its operations included setting up animal feeding centers, servicing hundreds, and sending volunteers into badly damaged buildings to rescue trapped animals. Destroyed buildings and rubble limit the animals’ ability to shelter.

In addition to Miyako, some Turkish volunteers have also partnered with international organizations to get more support. Humane International decided to shift its work to focus on a group of local veterinarians in Antakya who knew the organization would stay in the area for the long term.

Humane Society International’s animal disaster relief team at work in Antakya, Turkey after the earthquake, February 2023

Adam Parascandola, vice president of animal rescue with Humane International, worked in Antakya after the earthquake and estimated that there were tens of thousands of homeless animals.

“The scale of the destruction in Antakya was really overwhelming,” he said.

Parascandola said his organization is helping to provide cages and medical equipment to replace much of what was destroyed in the earthquake. He said that while some animals are being treated locally, others must travel elsewhere for treatment if they have more serious problems. The organization took to social media to announce the animals that were in need of adoption, with most of them going to Istanbul and the southwestern coastal town of Antalya.

“The shelters are overburdened and overcrowded and we don’t want to add to this problem,” he explained.

While there was a great deal of interest in adopting animals immediately after the earthquake, Parascandola said, that interest waned in subsequent months, with it becoming more difficult to house older animals. The Humane Society also faced logistical barriers, with no running water and a stable source of electricity established only after the organization received permission to move to the center of Antakya. No stores are open, forcing workers to travel an hour and a half to get supplies.

For Parascandola, who has worked on other disasters, one thing stood out in Turkey: the locals’ love of animals.

“Street animals tend to be very friendly because they have such a good relationship with humans,” he said.

– A cat rescued by Humane Society International’s animal disaster relief team in Antakya, Turkey after the earthquake, February 2023 (Source: Courtesy Humane Society International)

According to Turkey’s main Hürriyet Daily News, animal rights was the most popular issue in Turkey last year with 2.3 million signatures on Change.org, a website that allows people to sign petitions. Another petition calling for better treatment of animals in shelters and tougher penalties for those who commit acts of violence against them received nearly 350,000 signatures.

The Humane Society’s work is made easier by a law requiring pet owners to be microchipped, which means the organization can find homes for lost animals more quickly. About a quarter of the animals they find have homes to return to, Parascandola said.

Aside from earthquake-related injuries, many animals also suffer from ailments, such as diseases of the skin and upper respiratory tract. Parascandola speculated that some of them consumed poison left behind by displaced people living in tents as pest control. Some animals were injured during fights with each other due to the increased competition for food after being separated from their owners.

With three fault lines across the country, Turkey is an earthquake-prone country, with a magnitude 7.5 earthquake expected to hit Istanbul. Parascandola said his long-term hope is that the work of the country’s human community will help local groups organize their resources more effectively so that in the event of another disaster, there will be a more coordinated rescue effort.

Unfortunately, earthquakes seem to strike Turkey on a fairly regular basis. And so I think this is going to be really critical for the country next time,” he said.

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