In recent weeks, OIPA International has continued to offer aid to animals impacted by the earthquake in Turkey. As often happens, after the first few weeks in which public attention is very high, we tend to forget that unfortunately the consequences of these type of natural disasters will persist for a long time.

After a natural disaster and in the months to come, many activities and life-saving work still need to be considered. The rescue of animals stuck in buildings and of those abandoned in evacuated areas; the assistance to injured or sick animals through adequate veterinary care and treatment; the distribution of food and water, and finally the building of new shelters for strays who, having increased in number, roam the streets and the suburb of affected cities.

Following the call for help of “Ayrancı Patisi” rescue team, OIPA provided 10 cage traps that were used by volunteers in Hatay, Maraş and Malatya to transfer some cats, reported to be abandoned among the rubble, to safer places.

Our delegation in Turkey together with other local volunteers could build 90 homemade wooden houses for stray dogs of Osmaniye, giving them a secure place where to rest and find shelter from the bad weather. In addition, OIPA International purchased 2,4 tons of dry food for dogs and cats distributed to volunteers in the city of Elbistan, and soon delivered to other affected cities.

OIPA International also funded transfer costs and veterinary care for 23 cats and a dog with scabies rescued in Hatay by our member league association “Bir Pati de sen tut“, whose volunteers had already been helped in a previous rescue operation. Transferred in 6 different veterinary clinics of Ankara, all animals found dehydrated and affected by urinary infection, however they immediately received care and assistance including blood tests, x-rays, parasitic treatment. Among the rescued animals, three pregnant cats gave birth to kittens. Thanks to the hard work of our member league, most of the rescue cats have already been adopted and they will be welcomed into their new homes after being sterilized.

Thanks to the campaign “Earthquake Emergency”, OIPA International has supported its member league associations and local volunteers on all fronts, and this time with the financial contribution of a very special partner, the US organization SPCA International. We are infinitively grateful to SPCA for helping our organization assist animals in distress.

Even though the earth has stopped shaking, animals still need us. Read the updates of our campaign “Earthquake Emergency” and let’s help them together.

OIPA International keeps helping earthquake-affected animals in Turkey and Syria supporting a variety of field activities in partnership with local volunteers and member league associations, including food supply and distribution; rescue operations for animals trapped in damaged and unsafe buildings; veterinary care, and transfers of rescued animals from affected areas to shelters, foster homes or clinics located in safer places.

OIPA International donated 360 kg of pet food to volunteers in Ankara who travelled to Hatay, one of the most affected provinces, to feed stray, homeless and rescued animals. Meanwhile, the distribution of pet food organized by our delegation in Turkey is still ongoing and recently reached volunteers in Adana, Gazientep, Osmaniye and Hatay.

OIPA is actively supporting its member league “Bir pati de sen tut”, a non-profit animal charity based in Izrim, for the rescue of animals reported to still be trapped in damaged buildings. This week, the team went to Maras and, in only two days, saved 30 cats and a dog. Some animals were reunited to their families, while for the homeless one first veterinary checks are awaited. Some others will be transferred to Ankara and Istanbul looking for new families. OIPA bore the costs of food distributed in the area; the costs of some cat traps, disposable underpad and pet carriers, as well as the initial transport costs from Maras to Ankara of rescued animals and the cost of transfer for two urgent cases: an abandoned German shepherd left outside an evacuated house and a disable cat. They both reached Mor Pati shelter in Istanbul.

In a previous rescue activity, jointly undertaken by PADER association, Ayrancı Patisi rescue service and some volunteers, and for which OIPA sponsored the rent of a lifting crane for one day, more than 20 cats and some dogs were saved. For five of these cats, now under the good care of our member league Bir Pati, OIPA had the pleasure to give them names. Our purr-fect friends Hope, Wish, Sun, Dream and Life are now looking for a family.

In Syria, thanks to the immense work of local volunteers, OIPA has once again managed to get about 300 kg of food for dogs and cats inside the country, which was distributed to stray animals in the province of Damascus.

We are still in the middle of the emergency, field activities to help animals will continue in the coming weeks and only with your support to the fundraising “Earthquake Emergency” we can bear the costs for food, rescue operations, veterinary care and pet transfers.

After a first delivery of 450 kg of pet food in Syria thanks to our precious contact and the immense work of local volunteers, we have been able to distribute an additional 450 kg to animals affected in Aleppo and surrounding areas. A city that has been transformed into a ghost town, where piles of rubble have become the prison of animals who have not yet been released or the refuge for those who no longer have a place to go.

The only relief for animals who wander around lost, frightened, hungry and wounded comes from a caress, a friendly word and a bowl full of food ready to fill their day. While feeding homeless animals, volunteers heard crying from the rubble and pulling out debris they found five cats, three of whom seriously sick and malnourished, two dogs, one of whom with the front leg injured, and an abandoned rabbit. After being rescued, all animals were taken to the only veterinary clinic open in town, where they had been examined and got treated. Some of them are still at the clinic, waiting to heal and recover after surgery. OIPA beared the cost of veterinary care and therapies.

Waiting for the distribution of 3 tons of food to stray and homeless animals looked after by volunteers in quake-affected areas of Turkey, and more precisely in Adana, Elbistan, Osmaniye, Malatya, Urfa – Sanliurfa, Gazientep and Nurhak, with the accurate coordination of our delegation OIPA Turkey; OIPA International has given support for some rescue activities in Kahramanmaraş to the association Pader renting a crane for a day. Some animals were left trapped in flats of buildings evacuated for instability.

During this emergency, no life is left behind. The association CANLI HAYATINI, with which OIPA cooperate in the area of Gaziantep has in fact rescued a lamb and his mother, who had been trapped in rubble for 11 days.

All this was possible in a very short time only thanks to donations received for the ” Earthquake Emergency ” fundraising campaign and to the big hearts of our supporters with whom we could continue to help animals in need in this emergency.

Continue to support our fundrasing “Earthquake emergency”! Together we can help animals affected by the earthquake to feel loved and less lonely

One week after the terrible earthquake that struck the Turkish-Syrian border and still in the midst of the emergency, in which rescue teams from all over the world continue to work tirelessly to pull out those still under the rubble, harsh temperatures, lack of food, water and shelter are setting in. Humanitarian NGOs are already on the field to help people, while organizations like OIPA are sorting out the distribution of aid to deliver to needy animals in affected areas.

In just a few days and through the amazing support of volunteers, OIPA managed to distribute 450 kg of food where we thought it would be more difficult to arrive, in Syria. A forgotten land in which the suffering of strays is invisible. A race against time to alleviate the hunger of these animals in such a devastating moment, where even those who were taking care of them in some way can no longer help or find it hard due to the lack of resources, which were scarcely available even before. A new delivery is expected to reach Aleppo in the next days, thanks to a trusted local contact, who together with other volunteers us doing their utmost to help us care for the animals in the area.

Also in Turkey, with the support of our local delegation and regular contact with some volunteers and animal rights activists, we are weaving a solidarity network of aid that will reach the most needy areas, where support is struggling to arrive. As in any tragedy, there are areas where aid and assistance are mostly conveyed, while others are left with little or nothing. Beyond Yarbasi and Adana, OIPA is organizing to reach Elbistan, Adiyaman and Diyarbakir.

A huge number of strays or animals who no longer have a home, forced to roam and wander in search of food to survive and take shelter in the rubble. Each of them has a story to tell and looking into their eyes you can see the suffering and loneliness of those who are already in difficulty and now without point of reference.

Your support to the fundrasing “Earthquake emergency” is fundamental! Together we can help animals affected by the earthquake to feel loved and less

A new devastating tragedy looms over the lives of humans and animals, the same month war in Ukraine broke out last year. A catastrophic earthquake that, in recent days, hit the already precarious border area between Turkey and Syria and is already considered one of the greatest disasters of our time. A staggering number of broken lives, thousands of people injured, buildings, homes and infrastructures destroyed, despair, pain, fear and an impressive number of displaced people.

This is the general overview of what happened. In the early hours of February 6, a powerful 7.8 earthquake hit the southeastern part of Turkey, shocking the entire Kahramanmaraş Province and the northeast of Syria. A second earthquake of magnitude 7.6 was felt around 1.30 pm local time, causing to date more than 41,000 victims, levelling entire areas, destroying buildings, houses, factories, and damaging infrastructures, schools, water systems and public facilities.

Rescue teams from abroad, including Italy, are bringing aid mainly to Turkey, as the area is easier to reach safely at the moment then crossing the Syrian borders, being difficult to find an access route and bring aid convoys and reinforcements.

Rescuers are still pulling people out from the rubble. They work round the clock to save as many lives as possible, hoping to find people alive, those wounded and those who are still missing. To suffer from the situation are not only human beings, but those who, like us, are sentient beings, the animals.

To be harshly affected and suffer from the situation, the cold, the lack of food and shelter are not only human beings, but also those who are sentient beings just like us, animals. If the number of human victims (at least on the Turkish side of the earthquake can be counted) that of animals who lost their lives, or that are still under the debris or roam in search of food and a safe shelter is completely unknown.

Fortunately, even the animals still alive are pulled out of the debris by rescuers and volunteers, and the injured ones are rescued and taken to safer places.

Faced with all this pain, OIPA International did not want to stand on the sidelines and has already started to plan the delivery of aid for the affected animals in Turkey and Syria albeit with some difficulty.

Supported by OIPA Turkey, we immediately got in touch with volunteers in the affected areas, who are taking care of animals in need (currently Adana and Yarbasi) and, thanks to a very special contact, in the coming days pet food will reach Aleppo, Syria to give support to the animals already forgotten before this tragedy.

OIPA launches the campaign “Earthquake Emergency” not to leave animals and those who are caring for them alone in this immense tragedy.

Your help will be a glimmer of hope for those who have nothing.

PICTURES OF THE SITUATION IN TURKEY-SYRIA