Used to have a textile company in Istanbul’s Küçükçekmece district, Smith decided to establish an animal shelter once seeing that Eyüp Municipality was deserting ‘poor’ dogs to their fates by dumping them in the outer skirts of Kemerburgaz where rubbish was accumulated and poisoning them once their population increased.
“Until about the year 2007, the policy of Eyup was either to poison dogs (usually with strychnine) or to collect and dump them on the Hasdal rubbish dump. This policy was ineffective and cruel as strychnine causes a slow and agonizing death,” told Smith to Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on a Thursday.
Coming across with a scene in which little puppies were trying to suck their dead mother’s breast during a visit to the spot, Robert, deeply touched, decided to deal with this homeless dog problem thoroughly. ‘Sterilize, Vaccine and Leave the dogs in their habitat’, or Neuter & Return, was the technique adopted by Robert and his team composed of two catching teams, six veterans and twenty personnel at the time.
Undertaking the whole expenses of the shelter, Smith constructed barracks where the dogs can stay, and prepared intensive care units and surgery rooms where veterans can have sterilization. Nevertheless, the efforts of Smith weren’t acknowledged by Eyüp mayor Ahmet Genç whose poisoning policy was protested by a group of animal activists in the year 1999.
“Animal lovers organized a demonstration against Ahmet Genç’s cruel policy in 1999 and dumped the bodies of poisoned dogs on the steps of his office. SHKD had nothing to do with this demonstration and I had not prior knowledge of it,” said Smith pointing that Eyüp mayor took SHKD as a target afterwards.
“Mr Genc felt insulted. A few days later armed men accompanied by bulldozers and heavy moving equipment (mobile cranes) destroyed the new shelter we built on the edge of the Hasdal rubbish dump,” added Smith saying that they have no legal proof that Eyup Municipality or Mr. Genç committed the crime.
However, the usage of a lot of equipment, manpower and organization gave clues about the arranger, said Smith saying that even though they had applied to the Police and Governor’s office, the investigation went very slow and they couldn’t get any results.
Rebuilding the shelter whose monthly cost is YTL 25.000 and which is paid from Smith’s and his wife’s life savings and business income in the UK, Smith and his team has successfully actualized 40 thousand surgeries, so far.
Change the mentality
Thinking that something should be done to prevent the indifference and violence towards homeless dogs as the number of the dogs whose heads were covered with can bottles or necks wrapped with wires were certainly not low in Turkish society, Smith thought the best ways to cope with such cruelties is to promote Responsible Pet Ownership through educational programs and paying visits to governmental authorities to change the ongoing mentality.
“The main purpose of SHKD is to promote Neuter and Return as the most efficient, cost-effective and humane method of surplus dog control,” said Robert saying that it has been adopted as part of Turkish animal protection law now.
“Our purpose is now to demonstrate our open shelter in Hasdal how surplus dogs can be kept in healthy, stress-free and humane conditions relatively cheaply,” said Smith. “The cost of a national Neuter & Return programme will be approx. Euro 1,- per citizen in the first year, 75 cents in the second year, then diminishing to almost nothing by year 10,” added he inviting officials and ministers to take the initiative.
Educationary Tour
Training children with informative booklets so as to improve the living standards of homeless dogs, SHKD recently conducted a project in Turkey’s Bitlis province, located on the Eastern Anatolian part, by collaborating with the Animal Rights Association, or HAYTAP, and the ActieZwerfhoden Association from Holland via the connection of Linda Taal, a volunteer.
Saying that they have sterilized 240 dogs, the manager of SHKD Murat Bekan said that they reached to 2000 students during the seminar. Within the scope of this educationary tour supporting the idea that sterilization is the most effective solution for dealing with the increasing dog population in the long run, SHKD stopped at Fethiye, Göcek, and Erdek during this year, as well.
Noting that thanks to Roberts’ efforts, the Municipalities of Istanbul including Eyup Municipality abandoned their policy of poising dogs and began to open rehabilitation centers after [around] the year 2003, said Ömer Atış, a veteran technician working at the SHKD, noting that the working conditions of SHKD are tough as it cannot see the support as it deserves in Kemerburgaz.
Tough conditions
“Working in very hard conditions such as lack of electricity and heating, the team of SHKD and volunteers took the responsibility of nearly two thousand dogs’ maintenance,” said Atış stressing that the reason there are starving street dogs and traffic accidents with dogs in turkey results from Turkish people’s not taking responsibility for their local dogs by allowing them to stray and copulate.
Smith’s will
Selling his business in Turkey in 2004, Smith continued to finance SHKD as he truly believed in his project and didn’t give up. Saying that his perseverance was partly justified by the adoption of the Turkish Animal Protection Law, Smith underlined that before he dies, his ambition is to be able to drive from Istanbul to Ankara or Istanbul to Izmir without seeing the body of a single dead dog on the road.
“I can drive from Madrid to Helsinki or from Budapest to Oslo without seeing a dead dog. Why can I not drive even a few kilometers in Turkey without seeing them?” stressed Smith having other social responsibility projects abroad. Thinking that the Municipalities should progress in their implementation of Neuter & Return, Robert said that he finds their methods imperfect and patchy.
Inviting volunteers
Nevertheless, the recent financial crisis experienced influenced the funds of the shelter in negative terms. Even though Smith tries to cover all, we still need support says Atış emphasizing that they are looking for volunteers who could give love and caring for their dogs.
“Now, we have a new project called ‘Red Barrack’ in our agenda. As our barracks got older after 12 years usage, the founder of Karaca textile, Hayrettin Karaca decided to renovate them by undertaking its expenses,” said Bekan noting that SHKD will take its brand-new shape in a year.
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