News

Latest news from Silke Wrobel of The Animal Protection Society out in Crete

News at last! It has been quite some time since we last updated you on the activities of the animal shelter. Rescue work has been non-stop this year and correspondence has inevitably been shelved.

I have been absolutely flooded with animals requiring medical care, feeding and general attention throughout 2007. It has never been so bad and I scarcely have a free minute. The transition to the euro here caused inflation and much continuing hardship, and inevitably this has had a detrimental effect on animal care. Animals seem to be at the end of the line of priorities and this is a real disaster. Abandoned animals are at an all time high as people unable to afford emergency operations, castration/sterilization and vaccinations are simply dumping pets and their offspring; I am seeing a huge increase in numbers of wounded and pregnant animals and also litters. To give you just one example: this year we have had to have operations done on 50 highly pregnant females to avoid further litters increasing the animal population still further. All year I continually found puppies and kittens wounded on the roads as they scavenged for food and as the restaurants and hotels closed down at the end of this year’s holiday season the situation only got worse. I simply have no room or time for all that I need to do.

Despite purchasing land for the new shelter, and despite verbal promises from local government, I just cannot get the required written authority to run an animal shelter on the ground; the authorities just run me in circles continually. They want our work but do not want to suffer the loss of votes for agreeing to have an animal shelter in their area. I am currently trying to see if I can get authorization ‘through the back door’, proclaiming it as an animal holiday pension or similar, but it is a minefield of legalities and I cannot consider breaking the law or my carefully built reputation will be destroyed. It is so frustrating.

More positively, we have helped a tremendous number of animals so far this year and through our German support group some 300 have been transported to Germany, once quarantined, treated medically, sterilized, vaccinated and micro chipped, and from there they have gone on to several different Northern European countries to new owners. I love to get the ‘before and after’ photos of the animals with stories of their new lives and loving families; happy endings make it all worthwhile. Some are rehomed here in Crete of course but in much smaller numbers. In view of space restrictions I am extremely grateful to a number of local foster carers who look after animals before they can go on to their new homes abroad. A few volunteers gave us help with cleaning, feeding and basic nursing care this year, and also this summer some local school children volunteered their services, petting and walking the dogs regularly, giving them some much needed attention since I and my few workers cannot stretch ourselves enough.

Additionally we now have the support of a Greek cat association who want to help. They have a vet who travels around performing sterilisation operations and they have offered this sort of support to our feline population at some point in the near future. Additionally, Lis Key of International Animal Rescue, which is based in East Sussex in England, visited us in the summer and they hope to support us in some way in the future.

The German support association sends us a truck load of food and medicines several times a year and this summer, we arranged for them to divert to the Peleponnese area of Greece where summer fires had so devastated the land and many animals were, and still are, in need of help. They delivered much needed medicines and food and took some animals for medical treatment and eventual rehoming.

We would like to thank everyone who has helped us this year for their kindness and support. Please know that your generosity is deeply appreciated and that without you we just could not keep going. I give a big thank you to Action for Animals in Britain and to Tierfreunde Kreta in Germany for all your help in 2007. As every year, we are very grateful to the British holiday company, Sunvil Holidays, who, with their many animal loving clients, have loyally supported us for a long time now. Their 2006 end of season donations enabled us to install much needed air conditioning in our quarantine area, along with other necessities, and this year’s donations will fund fencing and basic concreting for the new shelter grounds, plus more. I give a special mention this year to the Scandinavian holiday companies who have supported us generously, and in particular to the many Danish people who have taken animals back with them for rehoming. Grateful thanks too to Terry McMonagle and Marie O’Byrne of North Dublin SPCA for their welcome support. For those of you I haven’t mentioned individually, your help is no less appreciated. For all you have done, and for all you will continue to do I offer my heartfelt thanks.

Well, on that note, I will leave you to enjoy the coming festive season and send you our very best wishes for 2008. If you’re planning to visit Crete in 2008, be sure to call in and see us; you can be sure of a warm welcome.

Action for Animals is now planning on opening a charity shop in Spain, in an effort to raise funds for the continuation of our valuable work.

Last year we funded two neutering schemes in the village of Competa to help keep the cat population under control. We also provided financial assistance to help local people pay for essential operations needed by their beloved pets.

We hope that funds from the shop will enable us to expand our work in the village.

Nearly every day very young animals and those in need continue to arrive. The number of strays has increased dramatically. We have to say that the situation, especially in Heraklion, is really frightening. There are also new diseases such as the very contagious feline leukaemia becoming prevalent. Unfortunately the strays’ situation is bad and there is no large-scale organization to take care of them. The general lack of money in Greece since the introduction of the euro means everyone is cutting back and the animals are always at the end of the chain anyway.

More positively, we have seen a kind of success through informing and educating people in animal welfare in Chania, as it is evident that due to the increased awareness, people are now changing their minds before they throw animals out on the road. Also, after Silke recently had a meeting with the authorities it really seems that everyone there understood the necessity of having a real shelter and we’ll pray that it becomes possible before much longer. The town hall and the mayors of the districts of Chania now seem to be making the first step in the right direction. The lack of a proper sized shelter is a big problem as the number of animals that can be helped is quite limited. There are still a lot of animals needing foster homes due to the current lack of space. Once rescued animals have been vaccinated, treated, neutered and through a quarantine period they need to be in a separate isolated area before they go on to families in Greece or abroad (mainly Germany). This transportation abroad continues to cause a lot of problems with Greek bureaucracy.

Nearly 500 animals were rehomed last year and in many cases people chose animals directly from Noah’s Ark or found them near their hotels and apartments and managed to get personally involved in the rehoming procedure. We are amazed that this year about 15 animals went to new homes in the UK and Ireland through the pet passport scheme. We would like animals lovers to know that it is not that difficult or even that expensive and if animals do the quarantine in Crete they are not isolated and can live with their friends, two and four legged. All this rehoming has resulted in a lot of happy dogs, cats and people. As a result of these efforts we have been able to win many new members who recognize how urgently help is needed and we thank everybody very much for their commitment and support.

If any of you would like to collect blankets, medical equipment or anything to support animals there is now a direct and regular transport link between England and Crete via a truck company, which could bring us such donations. More details are available from us. Thanks to all of you who kept Noah’s Ark in mind during the year by making a contribution and we would like to remind you that as the shelter no longer has volunteer veterinarians from abroad castrating and treating animals, medical costs are frighteningly high. Silke works only with Greek veterinarians but, even with the very good discount that they offer, the sheer volume of animals needing attention costs a horrendous amount of money. We would appreciate it very much if any of you would consider sponsoring a castration or operation.

We would like to thank everyone who helps Action for Animals and Noah’s Ark for your kindness and support. Please know that your generosity is deeply appreciated.

As usual I am sorry that there has been such a gap in updating you on what has been happening at Noah's Ark in Crete .

On 28th January Silke received official notice that the renovated shelter is not legal and should be vacated.  She is in talks with the local authorities and already has the lowest yet number of animals resident at the shelter.  Rescues, nursing, sterilisation and rehoming continue as before.  The clinic, with its resident German veterinarian, has also been declared illegal as its service of free sterilisation was considered unfair to the veterinarians of the town.Therefore the clinic is not operative at present and Silke is using the local veterinarians for sterilisation operations. 

Silke has about 50 cats and 50 dogs to look after at present but is continually taking in both adult and newborn animals so she has an tough ongoing job of rehoming to keep numbers manageable.

She has been inundated with litters of puppies and kittens lately as it is 'that time of year' and is feeding newborns from bottles around the clock.  There are so many she has had to take over another small shop across the road from the info shop (the latter is also packed with young animals) for the litters of young pups to be housed.  Basically the information shop isn't so much an office as a place for young animals and drop-in centre for visiting holidaymakers these days. 

Sterilisation remains a key part of the whole project. Silke is doing local TV interviews from time to time, and some for German TV.  She is also active in trying to make arrangements for the Athens strays as she fears they could all be poisoned prior to the Olympic games next year and is in collaboration with other small animal welfare groups in Greece who have the same aim.

However, there has been one serious development which has affected everything this year. As you may recall, the German veterinarian, Thomas Busch, has always played a key and supportive role with money raising, publicity of the shelter and working within the various sterilisation and rehoming projects going on. Due to differences of opinion between the two, this amicable arrangement has now come to a bitter end and Silke and Thomas Busch have divided completely.

Silke has been very upset at this turn of events and of course has suffered a dramatic decrease in revenue as a great deal of German support has now been lost. She is currently seeking legal advice over this matter and is trying to win back support from German supporters. 

Obviously Silke has been very worried about all this for months now and this is why she just hasn't had time to update her supporters properly. She has had to make cutbacks and as a result has been even more busy herself.  However Silke does have a good and dependable German supporter who is now looking after things at the German end. He has set up a new internet website to promote Silke and Noah's Ark. Unfortunately it is only in the German language at the moment so I am unable to understand it myself but you are welcome to check it out yourself, if you can read German, at  www.tierfreunde-kreta.de . 

Action for Animals of course continues to support Silke and her work in Crete.

Many thanks to all of you who regularly donate for Noah´s Ark, your financial help is always desperately needed.