Trustees' Annual Report for the period
| Period start date | Period start date | Period end date | Period end date | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | April | 2024 | 5 | April | 2025 | ||
| From | To |
Section A Reference and administration details
Charity name
ANIMAL FRIENDS OF TURKEY (AFOT)
Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any) 1182513
Charity's principal address 31 Honeypot Road
Brompton on Swale Richmond, North Yorkshire Postcode DL10 7HT
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 |
Trustee name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole **year ** |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carol Holbrook | Chair | |||
| Lisanne Hillen | Secretary | |||
| Gail Tyson | Treasurer | 06/04/2024-10/01/2025 | ||
| WendySmeaton | Treasurer | 06/01/2025 -05/04/2025 | ||
Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
Name Dates acted if not for whole year
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January 2022
Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser Name Address
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)
Section B Structure, governance and management
Description of the charity’s trusts
Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) How the charity is constituted TRUST
TRUST DEED
How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company)
Trustee selection methods ELECTED BY OPERATING COMMITTEE (eg. appointed by, elected by)
Section C Objectives and activities
Summary of the Charity’s Objectives:
- To assist in the relief of suffering of animals in desperate need of intervention as a result of abandonment or abuse.
Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document
-
To provide a safe haven for rescued animals during their period of recovery, rehabilitation and preparation for rehoming.
-
To seek where relevant high quality permanent homes for rescued animals and to oversee their transition from rescue care into their new forever homes.
-
To continue to provide lifetime back-up guarantee to all dogs rehomed through the charity in the event that any adopter is no longer in a position to provide suitable long-term care.
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January 2022
Main activities of charity during the year designed to meet these Objectives:
-
Maintained the reach of the charity’s rescue operation to areas outside the immediate Fethiye region to dogs in urgent and dire need.
-
Broaden our facilities for housing dogs.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)
-
The offering of full veterinary and rehabilitation care to all dogs in need that came into our care either into our Sanctuary/enclosures or through placement within our foster care network.
-
Continuation of successful rehoming of dogs into thoroughly vetted homes following completion of their period of recovery, rehabilitation and preparation in accordance with regulations.
-
Confirmation that the Trustees have had regard throughout the year to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission in the execution of the charity’s work.
Section D Achievements and performance
Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year
We were able to successfully re-organise mid-year to create more available funds.
We were able to successfully help more dogs In other enclosures.
We were able to successfully implement new software specifically designed for animal rescue and upgrade our website to a much higher standard.
We maintained our policy of having no paid staff throughout this financial year. All work within the charity continued to be carried out by a small but active group of volunteers in the UK.
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January 2022
Section D Achievements and performance
Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year
Summary of the main achievements and challenges of the charity during the 2024-2025 year:
One of the main, if not ‘the’ main challenge of this year was without doubt the implementation of the new ‘stray dog law’ which came into effect July 2024. The new law abandoned the ‘trap, neuter, release’ that Turkey had been using up until then. It now assigned responsibility for all stray dogs to the Government shelters making the Government shelter a stray dogs only rightful place to live. The summer of 2024 saw hundreds of thousands of stray dogs all over Turkey start to be rounded up, many were killed unmercifully, The ones that were taken would stay in the over-ran shelters until they were adopted or died. Old, disabled or poorly would be euthanised. This had serious consequences for the dogs as it took away their ‘right’ to live on the street, it also took away people’s legal right to feed them and many animal lovers started to face torment, harassment and serious abuse for trying to protect the dogs from the new harsh reality. Turkish shelters are full of disease and as Turkey do not operate a vaccination programme many would die painful deaths, many of the shelters do not have medical care not even sterilisation facilities. The workers are employed by the government and many are not animal lovers. It is estimated that the Government shelters in the whole of Turkey have a capacity for 105,000 dogs, it is estimated the stray population is in excess of 4 million. It has shocked everyone involved in Turkish rescue to the core and many court cases, demonstrations from animal activists in all Countries including Europe and the UK have been ongoing since implementation. We thought we had seen it all, but we hadn’t. As we had heard the rumours at the end of the last financial year we had therefore being discussing options if the new law was implemented as there was a last minute court case to try to dismiss it. These options included how we could house and help more dogs as it was painfully obvious our existing sanctuary was not going to be able to facilitate more dogs as the maximum had been reached. Over the months following implementation it became necessary for us to make changes which we managed to do in October 2024. With our existing sanctuary holding the maximum number of dogs we had no availability to help many of these dogs now being taken to the shelters and at risk of death. Our live in volunteer was also desperate to help more dogs but with nowhere to house them. We therefore decided to use facilities in the nearby region of Aydin where our Trustee Lisanne Hillen also runs her own rescue, she had availability in some of her enclosures and new dogs were almost immediately saved and placed there. The added benefit was Lisanne would make no charge for food and accommodation. We ceased financial responsibility for the existing AFOT sanctuary, thus realising more funds to help the dogs with export vaccinations in the other enclosures. We also decided that as dogs were re-homed from the sanctuary we would not replace therefore allowing the live in volunteer to be able to help more dogs The funds AFOT had invested in the sanctuary were paid back to us by the end of the financial year and the donation received from our patron was willingly left for the sanctuary to help more dogs. It was vitally important that we saved dogs not only from local areas but from the areas in the SW that were harsh in implementing this law to the letter, one of the shelters was Aydin. The new law also saw change in how people in the UK viewed foreign adoption, especially Turkey and applications to foster and adopt increased significantly as people wanted firs and foremost to help the Turkish dogs. Extra donations from members of the public were also forthcoming each wanting to help the crisis in Turkey.
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January 2022
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Section D Achievements and performance
Because Turkey was so much in the public eye during the year we have been able to yet again increase our supporter base and there is a steady flow of donations being received. We have upgraded our website with an outside specialist team who offered to help FOC, which has resulted in more traffic, alongside this we introduced new software that is designed specifically for animal rescue and this has helped with the work load of a small team, we have also introduced a new Committee member which has also helped in this area too.
Prices continue to rise Turkey, in some areas quite dramatically, especially the export process’s which is frustrating but all part of rescuing in a foreign country. However, even with this challenge and the UK cost of living crisis we still continue to gain good support in the UK with a dedicated supporter base.
We had good success with placing dogs in the UK after running a successful foster appeal. All of these dogs went on to be adopted and we are now running this scheme regularly where possible which at least enables us to get the dogs out of Turkey. We also saw a big increase in people contacting us wanting to help after the new law (when implemented went on to destroy hundreds of thousands of innocent dogs). Many of these went on to adopt dogs.
The new law that has seen hundreds of thousands of dogs killed unmercifully has left us all more determined to carry on our mission of saving the Turkish dogs as they now need us more than ever.
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January 2022
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Section E Financial review
Brief statement of the charity’s AFOT continues to be challenged in terms of building up any meaningful policy on reserves reserves, this is mainly because the cost per dog from start to completion is over £2000 per dog. However at the end of the financial year we were in a better position than the previous year holding deposits sufficient to cover 3 months running costs. Our aim continues to be to increase this to 6 months running costs and within the next three years to hold at least 12 months reserves.
Details of any funds materially in deficit
None
Section F Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s)
Full name(s) Carol Holbrook Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Chair etc) Date 12th December 2025
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January 2022
| Animal Friends Of Turkey (AFOT) Charity Name |
Animal Friends Of Turkey (AFOT) Charity Name |
Animal Friends Of Turkey (AFOT) Charity Name |
No (if any) | No (if any) | CC16a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
06/04/2024 Period start date |
To | 05/047/2025 Period end date |
|||
| Section A Receipts and payments | ||||||
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 20,286 81,765 2,980 12,192 949 27 - 118,199 - - - 118,199 18,700 41,260 7,192 40,435 1,265 750 1,157 1,660 3,522 2,056 117,997 - - - 117,997 202 - 10,751 10,953 |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ 20,286 81,765 2,980 12,192 949 27 - - 118,199 - - - 118,199 18,700 41,260 7,192 40,435 1,265 750 1,157 1,660 3,522 2,056 117,997 - - - 117,997 202 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|
| Donations for dogs/cats | 20,286 | - - - - - - - - - |
20,286 | 12,640 | ||
| other donations | 81,765 | 81,765 | 82,739 | |||
| events & merchandise | 2,980 | 2,980 | 9,495 | |||
| Gift aid | 12,192 | 12,192 | 22,209 | |||
| Refunds | 949 | 949 | - | |||
| Misc | 27 | 27 | 15,500 | |||
| Grants | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
118,199 | 118,199 | 142,583 | |||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
||||||
| - | - - - |
- | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| Sub total | - | - | - | |||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
||||||
| - | 118,199 | 142,583 | ||||
| - - - - - - - - - |
||||||
| Vet fees | 18,700 | 25,736 | ||||
| Foster,kennels & all food costs | 41,260 | 43,224 | ||||
| Sanctuarycosts inc repairs(not food) | 7,192 | 16,804 | ||||
| transport | 40,435 | 33,812 | ||||
| Events + merchandise | 1,265 | 1,695 | ||||
| Dogdonation refunds | 750 | |||||
| Dogsupport | 1,157 | 636 | ||||
| Misc(postage etc) | 1,660 | 8,624 | ||||
| Consultancy | 3,522 | 1,820 | ||||
| PayPal & international fees | 2,056 | 396 | ||||
| **Sub total ** | ||||||
| - | 117,997 | 132,747 | ||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
||||||
| - | - - - |
- | ||||
| - | - | |||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | - | |||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
||||||
| - | 117,997 | 132,747 | ||||
| 202 | - | - | 202 |
9,836 | ||
| - | - | - - |
- | - | ||
| 10,751 | - | 10,751 | 915 | |||
| 10,953 | - | - | 10,953 | 10,751 |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
02/02/2026
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets |
Signature Details Details AFOT bank account 37878068 AFOT bank account 78827868 Pay Pal account Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 10,786 - 167 - - 10,953 - OK OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name Carol Holbrook |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| Date of approval |
|||
| Carol Holbrook | 02/02/2026 | ||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
02/02/2026
2
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trustees Animal Friends of Turkey IAFOTI On accounts for the year ended 0510412025 Charity no lif any) 1182513 Set out on pages I report to the Iruslees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity I'the Trust") for the year ended 0510412025 Responslbilities and basis of report As the charily's Irustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 I'the Act"}. I report in respect of my examinalion of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination. I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145{5llbl of the Act. Independent I have completed my examination. I confimi thal no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination lother than that disclosed below ') which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act., or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records,. or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts sel out in Ihe Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair, view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Date: 0110212026 Name: Martha E M¢Garry Relevant professional qualification{s) or body lif any): ACA Address: 26 Gilling Road Richmond, North Yorkshire DL10 SAA IER Oct 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts." directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER Oct 2018