Abandoned Dog Found in Landfill as Rescuers Work To Save More Than 800 Dogs from Freezing
The biblical book of Job says, “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Psalm 90 notes how the years of a human life are “but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.”
But it isn’t just people who suffer. Animals encounter terrible pain, too, as a story out of Turkey shows.
According to Caters Real Life, Rescuers Without Borders is an animal relief organization that works in one of the world’s least attractive areas: Turkish landfills.
Why? Well, dogs are drawn to the free source of food. And as winter swells in strength in eastern Europe, those trash dumps become deathtraps.
Temperatures plummet. Malnourished dogs soon succumb to the elements.
Plus, there’s no way for the animals to find shelter in the cold-blasted, inhospitable landscape. That was how Rescuers Without Borders found a gentle giant named Kratos.
An eight-year-old Kangal Shepherd, Kratos was in sorry shape when the organization found him. He was achingly thin and dehydrated, as you might imagine.
But he also had open sores across his body and his hair was falling out in clumps. Rescuers could count his ribs and the knobbed bumps of his spine.
Kratos had managed to find a shallow divot between piles of trash and was lying there, waiting for the inevitable. Organization co-founder Crystal Carson said, “[Winter,] along with the combination of his weakened state, would have made it impossible for him to survive. Thankfully, the organization got to him in time.
“It will be a long recovery road due to how severely malnourished and dehydrated he was. … [But] He generally looks happier, and you can tell the medical treatment combined with good nutrition is starting to show the handsome boy he is.”
Carson stated over 800 dogs live (if you can call it that) in this particular landfill. They can’t rescue all of them.
In fact, saving a single animal costs anywhere from $800 to $2,000 per animal. “It is a gut-wrenching job to have to say yes or no, and then to know its simply due to lack of money makes it even harder,” Carson stated.
“We never ever want to leave any behind, but financially we can only do so much. The number all depends on the dog’s health condition and treatment needed, pet taxis to get them out of the landfill and transported to a Vet, monthly boarding fees, food monthly and monthly vet care maintenance, flight crate and flight ticket.”
Still, the Rescuers Without Borders crew does its best to care for every animal. They feed the animals left behind, whether they’re in the landfill or in neighboring villages.
Why do they do it? Carson wrote in a Facebook post, “The amount of heartache, tears and sorrow we go through on a daily basis, is really nothing compared to what they have to endure. Amongst the pile of trash are lives. This is what they call home.”
“But it all just never seems to be enough…” she continued. “So then why keep going?? Well I look into the eyes of my furry kids, 4 of which are from Turkey and 3 of those are from the landfill. I see them warm, loved, and spirits that are no longer broken but full of life! So for them I keep going, and for the friends I have to keep trying.”
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