Göcek is a small village in the south of Turkey ( near Dalaman), with about 2000 inhabitants. Like many villages around the Mediterranean Sea most villagers work in tourism, in particular water based tourism – many tourists spend their holiday on yachts hired in Göcek.
Our small animal protection society, ”Göcek Doga ve Hayvan Dostlar Dernegi” (Göcek animal and nature protection society) was founded in 1998, and at the same time the first stone was laid for our animal shelter. The first street dogs moved in, also in 1998. With the building of our shelter and intensive lobbying of the local council we were, in 1999, able to convince the authorities to end the poisoning of strays. Sadly dogs are still poisoned by the villagers. We are continually trying to change the attitude of the locals in favour of the animals.
There are about 15 street dogs in the village that have been castrated and inoculated by our society. Unfortunately neighbouring villages, and people on yachts regularly abandon their dogs here.
Another problem is the number of unwanted litters that farmers in the area leave here. Since 2002 we have organised an annual castration project for cats and dogs. In March 2006 85 feral cats and 35 dogs were castrated. The feral cats that have been castrated are earmarked. We are able to carry out the project thanks to donations.
The summer is a reasonably pleasant time for the street dogs. They are fed and stroked by tourists, and can feed on the food waste from hotels. There are very few people in Göcek from mid November until the end of April, the tourists have gone, and many inhabitants leave the village for the winter. This is a critical time for the street dogs, as there is little or no food for them to scavenge. We can offer a few dogs a place in our shelter and these are fed through the winter by volunteers.
It is very difficult to re-home our strays in and around Göcek. Sadly we find that dogs that have been placed in a rural area are chained, in spite of the promises of the owner. They are fed (too little) bread and raw bones, and risk neglect. We immediately remove these dogs back to the shelter.
The street dogs of Göcek are friendly, tolerant animals and have good contact with people –they know most people (tourists) to be friendly suppliers of food. They are used to some traffic, but Göcek is only a small, quiet village.