HELP RESCUE NOAH'S ARK
It's the only Animal Shelter on the Greek Island of Crete, founded over 11years ago by Silke Wrobel from Germany. Currently it houses in the numbers of 500 dogs, 100 cats and 12 donkeys, and it's entire existence is threatened. Here is a section of an email I received regarding this issue:
The situation:
The contract for the land/premises where the animals are now will end this
summer - officially. To get Silke out earlier, the owner threatens Silke
almost daily with illegal measures, i.e., to tear down the fences and
destroy the shelter during night time. Silke gets no protection from the
authorities and she fears for her and her animals' safety.
Silke has found another plot of land [for relocating the shelter to], which
is privately owned and available for purchase, if the mayor of the
community of Akrotiri would agree to install the water and electricity
supply and to grant a permit for the construction of the shelter. But, up
to now the mayor has refused to
sign the agreement, because he has decided he doesn't want the shelter to
be within his community boundaries. The local newspaper and TV station
published some very fine reports on Silke's work, but unfortunately they
didn't produce any positive results. To look for another place is not
possible, because the shelter has to be close to the airport and that means
Silke has to deal with the same mayor.
This situation is critical and it threatens to destroy everything Silke has
built up and worked for over the years, including effective neutering
programmes etc. Every friend of the animals can imagine what the closure
of the shelter would mean: more
sick and injured cats and dogs on the streets, with nobody to help them and
even more cases of run over, starved, poisoned or tortured to death cats
and dogs all over the island, because there would be no neutering
programmes, no refuge to take the animals to.
Because up to now nothing helped to change the mayor's mind, we kindly ask
you; no, we beg you - for the sake of our four-legged friends on Crete - to
support Silke by sending e-mails and faxes to the mayor and to all other
pertinent authorities; also to Greek media, the Greek tourist office [in
Greece and to their representatives in whichever country you reside] and to
anybody else you can think of. We are assuming that voices from abroad
would help. The mayor should realise that his hostile attitude and his
refusal to allow the new shelter to be built, could cause severe economical
damage to the island of Crete, because no friend of the animals will wish
to take their holidays there anymore.
We don't know if a flood of e-mails could persuade the mayor of Chania or
the district administrator to reconsider their decisions, but we can't give
up without a fight ... we mustn't give up; we are the only hope the animals
at Noah's Ark have - we cannot betray their trust. Please help by writing
a polite, but firm letter - in English - giving your views on this matter
and urging the mayor to support the work of Noah's Ark, by allowing the new
shelter to be constructed.
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Contact the Mayor of Chania and other people involved via these email addresses:
1] Mayor of Chania - Mr Georgios Tzanakakis: info-req@munch.org.gr
2] The Greek Prime Minister - Kostas Simitis
mail@primeminister.gr
3] National Tourist Organisation of Greece [EOT]
- Secretary General; Mr E. Giannakopoulos:
info@gnto.gr
You may copy and use the following sample letter as is, change it to suit what you want to say, or write your own (please Carbon Copy your letter to this address rschmid@otenet.gr
for Noah's Ark reference):
Send this letter (with carbon copy to rschmid@otenet.gr) to any of the above email addresses (make sure you insert the appropriate name for each person, and sign it at the end.)
Dear Mr. [insert name of contact here] (ie. Mr Mayor, Mr Simitis, etc):
With deepest regrets I have learned that the only existing animal shelter in
Crete - Noah's Ark on Akrotiri - will have to close because the private
rental contract ends, the permission to built a new shelter on Akrotiri has
been rejected by the local authorities and the town of Chania does not give
Mrs. Silke Wrobel the urgently needed support respectively a place where to
move the existing shelter, despite the fact that 95 percent of the animals
come
from your town. This means that the only animal sanctuary on this island,
which, by the way, is financially supported only by donations from
Switzerland, Great Britain, the Netherlands and mostly Germany, will stop to
exist. This is not at all acceptable. It would be a shame if on such a
beautiful island like Crete, suffering stray cats and dogs, kicked out,
thrown on rubbish dumps, sick and injured, run-over, starving and starved,
poisoned, beaten or tortured to death will again become part of the daily
life.
Just imagine what impressions tourists will gain from your island, what
memories they will take with them, when they initially came to enjoy a nice
and relaxing holiday, but instead rather have to take care of the abused
animals because obviously nobody else does. I am even convinced that closing
down Noah Ark will damage your image world-wide and stop tourists from
coming to Crete.
The great Mahatma Gandhi once stated:
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
I would like to urge you from the depths of my heart: Please show that you
own these qualities by supporting Mrs. Silke Wrobel in every respect in
order to continue with Noahs Ark and her indispensable work.
Yours sincerely
[ Insert your Full Name:]
[Insert your Street and house number:]
[Insert your City:]
[ Insert yourCountry:]
[Insert your E-mail address:]
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You can visit Action for Animals's Website to learn more about Noah's Ark here:
http://www.actionforanimals.org/
See this site in French!
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/solis/aa/
Below is a list of newspapers and TV channels who have reported on the matter, please write to them for more information or to thank them for their coverage and encourage them to continue to cover the amazing work done at Noah's Ark!
NEWSPAPERS:
1] Ta Nea [Martina Iriotou]: miriotou@dolnet.gr
2] Elefterotypia: FAX; 00 301 9028 311 or 12/13
3] To Vima:
tovima@dolnet.gr
4] Ta Chaniotika Nea [c/o Mr Georgios Konstas]: han-nea@otenet.gr
TV CHANNELS:
National [covers all Greece]:
1] Star:
starpres@hellasnet.gr
2] Alpha:
alpha@alphatv.gr
3] Mega:
publ_rel@megatv.com
4] Antenna:
webmaster@antenna.gr
CRETE TV channels:
1] Kydon:
info@kydon.gr
2] Kriti 1:FAX: [00 30] 821 - 958 88
3] Creta:
cretach@her.forthnet.gr
4] Kriti TV:
cretetv@forthnet.gr
If you have any more information you'd like to add to this page, please contact me at laughingkoala@australiamail.com
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Thanks for caring!
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