Major’s Message

Dear Animal lover friends,

The sensible and beautiful people of Fatih.

Years ago, our Animal Shelter was established by the responsible act of Meral Olcay and now it became the biggest animal shelter of Middle East and Balkan Region with your support. Two thousand dogs hold on to life with your attention and support. To see the sensitivity of our people makes me happy. Cruelty of daily life started to diminish our values such as the love of animals which was carried from our ancestors. I am sure that everyone of us have the reminiscence of a cat or dog which was the mascot of our neighborhood. These were animals who were named and fed by neighborhood residents and were friends and protectors of the children of the neighborhood. In the past, we were an animal loving community. As Dervis Yunus says, “We loved the created for the sake of creator”. We were not torturing them, instead we were protecting them. We showed respect to right of life of each living creature. Similarly we also showed respect to the nature. Fatih Sultan Mehmet Khan said “I will cut the head of the person who cuts a branch form my forests” and put an emphasis on protection of nature. He also written his sensitivity on his lawbook. There were birdhouses on the walls of mosques and mansions. Time changes everything, yes indeed, but we can preserve them with a little bit of effort. We can make this world more livable for each of us by showing more compassion to these creatures who can not express their needs in a language and who we share the world with them. Humanity requires this. It is not really a hard thing to put some food and water in a corner of a street. This is the duty of humanity for all of us.

Dear responsible friends,

As you know, our animal shelter solely lives with the support of volunteers. We as the Fatih Municipality, cover all basic expenses of Our Shelter and give logistic support. But these animals need attention, love and compassionate hand of a person who pat theirs heads. Of course, they need vaccination and food for healthy survival.  If you live the animal love inside and want to do something about it, you can learn from the internet site of our shelter’s financial needs and make donations for the animals.  As the Fatih Municipality, we give importance to our social values and try to protect them. From 2004, we are establishing Fatih as a place having strong connection with its roots and also looking to the future. We worked very hard for the last 5 years and we made important plans and investments to earn the deserved value of Fatih which we called “the real Istanbul”. We made 50 investments, 212 projects during the last 5 years. Our animal shelter is a part of these 212 project. We don’t think animals separately from humans while planning a city. We respect the right of life of all creatures which we share the world. Did you recognize that we can hear the sounds of birds again? We created new habitats for birds through planting parks. Our purpose is to build a city which is sparked with the architecture combining the past and future and the historical texture.   A shining city anyone wants to see from any part of the World… We want prosperous, calm people who like to live in this city and have an awareness of urban life. A city befitting 21^st century and reflecting the history of 8000 years… We have many things to do for reaching this aim for each and every living thing…

Keep and share your love…

Fatih Mayor
Dr.Mustafa Demir