The donation drive to fund the “Karpasia donkeys management plan” aims to raise 2.28 million TL (€59,793), Kemal Basat, director of its overseeing organisation, the Tashkent nature park, said on Friday.
He said that figure will be enough to provide support for a total of 300 donkeys.
So far, he said, exactly 342,312TL (€8,977) has been raised, which he said is enough to cover the care of 45 donkeys.
Members of the public are able to symbolically adopt a Karpasia donkey through the Tashkent nature park and the Cyprus wildlife research institute by visiting bit.ly/esekkurtar.
The cost of adopting a donkey is 7,600TL (€199), with the Tashkent nature park saying that money will contribute “to improving the living conditions of these long-neglected animals in Cyprus”.
Earlier, Basat had said he will now make efforts to establish contacts with hotels and casinos with the aim of bringing in more donations, while also calling on Turkish Cypriot municipalities, universities and banks to offer donations.
“I do not think that any of these institutions will say that after all that has happened, we are not taking care of the Karpasia stray donkeys, we are not going to make a small contribution. But still, if you have the means to facilitate access and explain it, our Karpasia donkeys need your support. If you want to do something for them, the time is now,” he said.
The Karpasia donkeys management plan aims to “save” the donkeys and ensure they do not damage farmers’ crops in the region, and is jointly organised with the north’s ‘tourism ministry’ and the Turkish Cypriot Rizokarpaso and Yialousa municipality.
Basat told the Cyprus Mail that as part of the plan, the donkeys will be counted, caught, subjected to health checks and registered.
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