19th February

Dear Friends

The past two to three months have brought us enormous problems piling one on top of the other. But one of the biggest in my eyes was that we could not keep our valued friends and supporters informed about everything that was going on as it was happening! Apart from everything else the 8th Noah’s Ark report had to be translated and I had too few helpers available to help me with this. So much happened every single day, and everything changed so much, that I myself sometimes didn’t know what my next step would be! Now, however, the Noah’s Ark report is ready to update you on events up until the end of last year and as for latest news… I’ll tell you that now:

We have found a very suitable piece of ground that will be purchased by the European Association for the Protection of Animals and Nature (a very large organisation) The ground measures some 35,000 sq metres and all but 8000 sq metres of that is designated as a nature reserve, restricting our activities on it greatly. We plan to build on the 8000 sq metres providing a good quality shelter for all the animals and to develop the larger protected portion as parkland, which should attract visitors who will in turn find out more about what we are doing and so promote the animal welfare message still further. The local mayor should not be able to object to this plan. Since the beginning of this year we have rehomed 250 animals, we have built a lovely cat house on my own property, the rescues continue and we have 80 dogs already, with 30 new puppies. Additionally we have castrated 150 strays from 5 local villages in our temporary clinic.

We are in contact with animal welfare associations all over Crete preparing for the new season, arranging the rehoming of animals from various areas, as well as distributing leaflets on good animal care which should reinforce the message islandwide. We have featured positively on a good number of TV programmes and we are working very closely together to combat the threat hanging over the animal population as the Olympic games loom nearer and nearer. The government announcements that European Union money would allow municipal shelters to be set up all over Greece to take strays off the streets have only increased our fears that these shelters would be nothing more than places to kill off the animals. Noah’s Ark, together with the other animal welfare associations is campaigning for castration programmes and information drives instead.

With the help and support of allies such as yourselves we can continue rescues, castrations and rehoming on the scale we have been doing in the recent past. Now that the situation is becoming clearer and things are settling down I hope to keep you in touch with events much more regularly. I send my heartfelt thanks for bearing with me through this very difficult period.

With very warm regards,

SILKE WROBEL