Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Is this a reasonably safe area for dog walking ie poison?

Have to had your dog inoculated?

I live in this area and recently, sadly, two of my dogs died from poisoning!!!! There are some nasty "ooops" living up here!!!

Vaccinations are so important, distemper is still about...…...

Distemper is everywhere. Wherever there is a non inoculated stray dog (or some idiot who cannot be bothered to have their dog(s) inoculated there is a grave risk of distemper. Sadly there are no longer any guaranteed safe place to walk dogs. You must be prepared to walk dogs on leads and treat strays with caution. The distemper virus has changed the doggie environment. If you haven't already done so PLEASE make sure your dog is inoculated to protect it from distemper. This won't of course protect a dog from poison. Keep dogs on leads, no matter how inconvenient it may be to you personally.

Yes to reiterate Sophies comments, if you are with your dogs in the mountains, Summer danger is snakes and poison, Autumn danger is Hunters and poison, Spring then shepherds put poison and even if you are in a gated villa compoud type place your local builder will put poison in the form of a primitive weedkiller which will still damage your dog to the point of needing an urgent visit to the vets. All visitors and animal lovers, please be aware that for the most part this is an under developed country where the natives have had very little education in preserving or caring for animal life, if you love your animals keep a close eye and also protect yourselves during hunting season as they are gun happy. I suggest pointing them towards Syria if they pepper your house

Thanks to all for comments; sad to see that I was correct in assuming farmers etc still use poison in the Ilgaz mountain area. My dogs are both vaccinated to the hilt for everything (!) but nothing to stop poison of course. Perhaps it is a good thing that, altho' still lively, they are getting older and maybe do not require so much of a free run as when younger.

ailletoo wrote:I live in this area and recently, sadly, two of my dogs died from poisoning!!!! There are some nasty ooops living up here!!!

Do you mean the Ilgaz road from Karaman past the old deserted village towards Ilgaz?

Ferguson, I think you will find that ILGAZ means exactly what it says. Poison and stray dogs do not differentiate from one part of Ilgaz to the other. PLEASE don't take risks with your animals and be prepared to be more cautious than you might have been in the past. it just isn't worth it any more. Sorry.

I think we need to be clear. Ilgaz is a village above Yesiltepe, I live here. To my knowledge there are no farmers here, the hills behind are largely government land and sometimes host shepherds and goatherds. One local vet was claiming an outbreak of distemper here, this was erroneous and tests proved it to be incorrect. I know of no-one living here who lost two dogs and we have several long term street dogs.

Some FACTS. One street dog was poisoned 6 months or so ago, I think it was targeted. My neighbour lost a dog he had fostered about 18months ago whilst walking it in the mountains somewhere above the area near what is now the new Alsancak public park. Another neighbour takes his dog daily (along with some of the village dogs) walking all over the place with no harm. 2 dogs have been killed in the last 2 years by snake bites.

Jonnie, Thank you for an accurate summing up of the situation that's all I was asking in Msg 8....