Providing Homes, Care and Kindness to the Unwanted, Abused, Injured and Starving Cats and Dogs of Avsallar, Turkey
What you need to know...
In the seaside town of Avsallar, near the Turkish city of Alanya, the first thing you see is the seafront, saturated with large hotels devoted to all-inclusive holidays to countless tourists every year. In the shadow of these massive complexes between sea and expressway is a town whose activities focus on serving the tourism industry, mostly in the summer - the winter turns Avsallar into a bit of a ghost town.
Among all the concrete and the brutally uneven pressure of seasonal business live over 600 street cats and dogs with no home, no safe territory, no regular source of nourishment and no protection from the local authorities and community.
Abandoned to themselves, these street animals are constantly struggling to survive and live a normal life amid constant threats: traffic collisions, cruelty and violent "pest management" from some locals (especially around tourist hotspots such as hotels), physical abuse and exploitation (for profit and the entertainment of tourists) disease, lack of population control leading to injuries, stress and dire lack of food etc.
For the past 11 years, volunteer Manuela Wroblewski (pictured above), previously a successful actress from Berlin, has been devoting every single day and every ounce of her resources to feeding, neutering and finding good homes for these cats and dogs. About 900 have already been adopted and over 500 neutered and brought back to their territories.
The work of caring for the cats is so stressful and demanding that Manuela’s health has been severely affected. She needs to return to Germany for help. A local cat lover, Serpil Uysal has taken over part of the work for a while, but she is disabled, and the work is proving difficult for her. One replacement for Manu, Selda Doruk (see photo on the right), has been found. She has a car, and will continue this life-saving work. 
Over time Manu has found support from animal lovers and rescue experts around the world, all working towards helping Manuela ensure the sustainable welfare of these animals through our group of volunteers.
Welcome to the website of this group. What do we do?
We volunteer alongside Manuela in Avsallar for a few days or weeks at a time to feed, provide care for and neuter animals.
We help coordinate adoptions, we foster, sponsor or adopt cats or dogs.
We find homes, help with transport to good homes and funds to feed, neuter and look after these cats and dogs.
We reach out to others to increase awareness of Manuela's wonderful rescue efforts and find more support to help her solve this emergency.
What are our objectives?
We intend to neuter virtually all of the street animals under Manuela's care, as we believe this is the only way to limit these animals' vulnerability and avoid further misery.
We strive to find homes for as many of the friendly animals of Avsallar as possible and to ensure they are able to meet the requirements of their destination country in terms of health checks and veterinary procedures.We understand some more feral animals are happiest being left in their outdoor environment, but we do endeavour to neuter them so as to avoid creating more pressure on these cats and dogs' already very limited territory and resources.
We help Manuela look after the cats and dogs on a daily basis and do our best to ensure their welfare both on the short and long terms.
This website is dedicated to you, the animal lover who would like to support animals in distress by:
- donating funds to help feed and neuter the animals
- adopting, fostering or helping to transport a cat or dog to the country where their forever home awaits them
- sharing information about us and reaching out to potential adopters, fosters, volunteers or supporters around yourself
- keeping up to date with the latest good news and happy endings!
You will find more details on how to proceed by exploring this website. We are entirely at your disposal to help you help Manuela and the animals!
FEEDING THE ANIMALS: A DAILY FEAT
Before all else, the animals have to be fed. Manuela, Selda and Serpil cover a long regular route of about 15 miles. In addition, there are several local people who ask for food to feed the cats in their areas. Each food sack costs 21 euros. Serpil Uysal needs 5 food sacks besides the one for herself.
Three for the nice gardener in the difficult complex, and 2 more for the Yeni complex. To help, please send funds to
Mtoorkey@gmail.com
Say Serpil in notes please.
Thank you.
