Winter Feeding Round-Up

18/19 WINTER FEEDING PROGRAMME UPDATE – THANK YOU ALL AGAIN FOR SUPPORTING OUR WINTER FEEDING PROGRAMME WHICH RUNS FROM NOVEMBER TO APRIL – Once the visitors leave, most restaurants close and even the amount of locals reduce, it leaves hungry street animals in Kalkan. Over recent years Kalkan has grown and tourism expanded, meaning that our feeding programme had to grown too. We now cover the area from Akbel to Kordere and the whole of Kalkan too. We also help some animals in need in the surrounding villages, say there is a mum and pups or in the cold weather, someone feeding a large number. This year we have helped, in some way, over 1000 animals. We have distributed 565 bags of cat/dog food costing 38610 TL. This equates to 8475 kilos in total!!!! All paid for by donations and fundraising. We have purchased from Kalkan vet clinic and Kalkan pet shop. At the end of each summer season we shop around and see who can give us good prices and although we get through tons, we need frequent deliveries to our very small premises. These local providers were able to give some food at the previous winters prices too, which was a great help. We had a number of different varieties also. The feeding programme runs alongside the neutering programme, both are very important for the animals and the community. Many locals feed the animals scraps or share their own animals food, with a stray or two. We also have some donated plastic and metal cat feeders in position that are topped up every few days. Dont be shocked to see animals eating bread either, some actually like it and welcome the leftovers donated by the bakeries. The butchers donate leftovers too. So it really is a community thing! Huge thanks to all our supporters and volunteers who make all this possible, special thanks to the distribution team led by Eva, its not an easy “job” turning out each wednesday – teamwork at its best!!!

By Sandra Osbourne