Istanbul & Budapest Animal Welfare Workshops

Transcription

1 Istanbul&BudapestAnimalWelfareWorkshops The Kismet Account recently carried out our first two Animal Welfare training workshops of If you don t know about these, then the basic principle is this. We meet hundreds of animal welfare workers and municipal and veterinary staff during our projects and we know that most will never get to travel to animal welfare conferences as it s just too expensive. So we decided to take the conference to them, and these are the 3 rd and 4th workshops we have run. We are unusual since we hold, within our volunteer ranks, the full range of experience needed. As you ll see from our programme, we look at all aspects of training local groups, both in cat TNR and allied areas of concern. We are not just there to train vets - a common flaw of such programmes we train everyone. The workshops are a huge boost in skills and morale for the local societies and there is no charge to delegates. We run them on an economic basis (no 5 star hotels!) and we believe they are unique in what they offer. To make this happen, we rely on the help of WSPA, MDC Exports, and especially SNIP International as our main co-funder and operational partner. As well as finance, these funders support the costs of equipment and offer valued input and advice. The workshops are hard work for our trainers, all unpaid volunteers giving of both their teaching and practical skills. The UK trainers are drawn from KA s pool of volunteers and have been on at least 3 of our projects, with most having much additional experience in animal welfare and volunteer work as well as their professional backgrounds. We also enjoyed the input of several local guest speakers Tulu, Peter, Bela and Szusza thank you. The people with the hardest job, though, are our translators in this case Peter Kiraly, Çarı Akkın and Yuli Weston. To them we especially offer huge thanks. Rather than tell you the story in a long winding tale, we thought we d let you see some pictures and some comments. It was a pleasure to attend these workshops as a trainer and totally humbling to see the work that all of those we met carry out to protect animals. Thank you to all who have made this happen and all who support our future workshops if you are an individual or organization that likes what we do and can help us, please get in touch! BAKIRKOYMUNICIPALITY,ISTANBUL Cofunder (BudapestWorkshop) Cofunder& equipmentsupport Localorganiser Localorganiser Facilities&help

2 Istanbul The Istanbul workshop was extremely interesting In the main municipal staff and volunteer vets made up much of the audience rather than NGOs. The format was held strictly to TNR of feral cats and consisted of a theory day based at a small hall, followed by field training, a press conference, and 2 days training for vets based at the municipal shelter. The press conference at a local park attracted 5 newspapers and 8 TV stations, the media group comprising 28 individuals. Despite this we were able to demonstrate cat trapping and gave a number of interviews explaining clearly the benefits of TNR. We haven t seen all the coverage yet but what we did witness while in Turkey was very positive indeed. Many thanks to Yuli, and all at the Bakirkoy municipality who attended and assisted us. The night before finalizing the translations Coffee and a smoke. Ian MacFarlaine - Feral Cats and the TNR Basics Jenny Stavisky Veterinary considerations of TNR Classroom session delegates Tulu Derbi Istanbul American school TNR program

3 Yuli Weston Training at Attilya Ilhan Park Press conference Press pack Surgical Training Jenny Stavisky and colleagues Surgical training Çarı Akkin - Translator If ever we forgot where we were, we just looked up!

4 From Yuli Weston. The Feral Cat Program has been featured in 5-6, maybe more, newspapers and on 8-10 major TV channels and in my favorite section of today s Hurriyet s Pako Page. For a glimpse at the nature of reports, see Bakirkoy Municipal website: I hesitated on the subject title of this mail. Looking at it from my angle, I d call it: Mission Phase #1 Accomplished! As I have preciously explained, the purpose of this visit was to get a kick start and make the population aware of the importance of cats in society and of the many aspects of sensible, sustainable street cat protection. The response was overwhelming. In addition to the cat publicity, I personally picked up a lot of important tips and surely learned a number of very relevant points which I made the media aware of too. I feel confident that without any hesitation we can start a (hopefully perfect) program. Phase #2 will start next week. Yesterday, I had a very positive meeting at the Municipality. They want the program to start! On Thursday I will submit a proposal (Never mind the previous ones!!!) outlining the new action plan. They re anxious to get my Cat Protection signs installed. We will start on Monday. The Mayor wants the Cat Cafes in his neighborhood too! Of course, there s still some problems, a situation that s going to cost me and the cats time loss and cause unfortunate aggravation. I ll keep you posted. With that, on behalf of the Cats of Turkey, their caretakers and yours truly, please accept my warmest thanks and best wishes to all who made this program possible in Istanbul. Yuli The programme Istanbul: TNR Basics, Working together-ngos, Vets, Muncipalities & the public, Veterinary considerations, Trapping & handling, Istanbul American School TNR Programme, Field training, Hands-on surgery training Park Cats in Istanbul Budapest: TNR Basics, Working together-ngos, Vets, Muncipalities & the public, Cat diseases, Trapping and handling, Hungarian Cat Protection campaign TNR 2007, Rehoming, Five Freedoms, Animal Hoarding, Basic Fundraising, Using the Internet to help your organization. Budapest

5 Our workshops have been designed to be modular because we aim to try and meet the needs of the delegates. In the case of Budapest, the workshops were attended mainly by NGOs and trappers so we did not include veterinary training this is already available through Peter Kiraly of Rex. Day one focused on cat TNR issues with the second day looking at a number of broader animal welfare issues which are linked, as well as sessions on fundraising and using the internet which had been requested. Zsuzsa Böhm (Hungarian Cat Protection) TNR 2007 Ian MacFarlaine Cat THAT Cat! Harry Eckman Rehoming Difficult Animals Dr. Béla Lakatos Feline Infectious Diseases Dr Péter Király - Rex, Animal Welfare & the 5 Freedoms Delegate feedback session

6 Ian MacFarlaine Dealing with the animal hoarder Rex Foundation Rehoming & Education Centre Budapest allowed out for air REX foundation HQ Afternote. When Harry and myself first met Peter Kiraly in 2000, he was a lone vet visiting the UK to collect ideas. He had a vision of an animal welfare centre comprising rehoming, neutering and outreach services, but had no site, no association and seemed a long way off. Visiting Budapest today and spending time at a welfare centre that would do many UK institutions proud, we couldn t help notice how much has been achieved by Peter and his colleagues in 7 years. We congratulate Peter and all the people at Rex on their success which continues as work starts on their new cattery. We really look forward to working with you all again soon! The programme Istanbul: TNR Basics, Working together: NGOS, Vets, Muncipalities & the public, Veterinary considerations, Trapping & handling, Istanbul American School TNR Programme, Field training, Hands-on surgery training

7 Budapest: TNR Basics, Working together: Vets, Muncipalities &the public, Cat diseases, Trapping and handling, Hungarian Cat Protection campaign TNR 2007, Rehoming, Five Freedoms, Animal Hoarding, Basic Fundraising, Using the Internet to help your organization. THE UK TRAINING TEAM Ian has worked in animal welfare for 19 years, the first ten as a veterinary nurse & manager for PDSA, Wood Green Animal Shelters & RSPCA. In 2002 he moved to local government, as Animal Health & Welfare Inspector at Trafford Council in the UK. In his spare time Ian is Kismet Account s coordinator & has led more than 35 overseas TNR projects & workshop training events relating to TNR, in 9 countries. Ian is a UK qualified Veterinary Nurse & co-author of the FAB feral cat manual. Ian is also a consultant for WSPA. Harry Eckman Ian MacFarlaine RVN After managing a small business, Harry moved into the animal welfare field in He was Head of Kennels at the Mayhew Home in London, followed by a period in fundraising for the Mayhew, and the Canon Collins Trust, an African HIV/AIDS charity. From 2004 to 2007 he was manager of Wood Green Animal Shelter in London. Harry currently works in project management for the University of London. Harry has volunteered on three Kismet projects as a feral cat trapper to date Jenny Stavisky MRCVS Jenny qualified as a vet at Edinburgh (Dick) vet school in 2002 and after a spell in mixed practice in the Peak District she returned to academia at Liverpool University where she is presently completing a PhD in the subject area of infectious diseases of dogs. She has volunteered for 3 Kismet projects in Portugal, acting as lead vet and teaching local clinicians, as well as running the successful veterinary training workshop we held in Istanbul. Training assistants Our training assistants, recruited from London, Manchester & Budapest, are fully conversant with all aspects of the running of our workshops. They assist in demonstrations of equipment, feline aggression, vaccum-effect repopulation, and also serve as pointing devices when the batteries run out on the laser pointer. A close family, although we suspect that there may have been some external genetic input. They are also the only cats currently allowed to travel as hand luggage in aircraft cabins.

8 Report and photographs by Ian MacFarlaine Tel +44 (0)