The story of Noah's Ark on Crete

The first Noah´s Ark has been founded nearby Chania airport.

Noah´s Ark Crete has been founded by German Silke Wrobel in 1989.
Starting out from scratch in a warehouse that has been operated as the city´s animal shelter on the outskirts of the town of Chania, Noah´s Ark grew to be the island´s largest animal shelter on a terrain rented nearby Chania airport.

The first buildings could be built with the aid of donations from Germany.

But after the lease contract expired and couldn´t be extended, the animal shelter had to move in January of 2002. Therefore many animals where taken to Germany and the bordering countries to find new homes.

But being forced to return to the warehouse where the municipal´s so-called "animal shelter" originally used to be, it didn´t take long before it was overpopulated with the poor and unfortunate creatures.

Silke Wrobel

Thanks to a TV special of the documentary "37 Grad" (translates to "37 degrees") on German TV channel ZDF in November 2001, the animal shelter and it´s foundress Silke Wrobel gained vast popularity throughout Germany. The donations obtained from this TV broadcast made it possible to renovate the municipal animal shelter and enabled a more effective utilization of the area.

However, an urgently needed "major solution", a completely new animal shelter on an appropriate open-air lot, could not be realized due to diverse difficulties. Noah´s Ark still is the largest animal shelter on the resort island of Crete, and the amount of needy animals is enormous.

In the meantime, the far reaching publicity that Noah´s Ark has been receiving results in even more "unwanted" animals that are being brought to the shelter - most of them simply being anonymously tied to the fence.

"Disposed" dog tied to the animal shelter´s fence

Apart from taking care of the animals, teaching animal welfare as well as raising awareness among the Greek population is another major activity Noah´s Ark takes very seriously.

One of the reasons why a store right in the center of Chania town has been rented is that it functions as a contact point for both the locals and residents of the region. Also, being an information center it attracts tourists while window shopping.

To work for Noak´s Ark means fighting a constant struggle - against the lack of money, public authorities and even one´s very own feelings - because it takes a great deal to emotionally handle all the distress and privation one encounters on an everyday basis.

But nowadays, on Crete and even all over Greece, indications for the spirit of a rethinking can be found. This gives hope to carry on the work, to further support the "fragile little plantlet" called "Greek Animal Protection".

Still it is necessary to take animals to Germany, Switzerland, Austria or Great Britain to find new loving homes. However, more and more greek veterinarians get involved in animal protection projects and increase the awareness within society; together with the neutering campaigns of international organizations there´s hope that sometime in the future the problem of animal welfare can be solved within the country.

The information center "Little Ark" is located in the center of Chania

But unfortunately, this state hasn´t been reached yet, and so Noak´s Ark hopes to one day create a new and larger animal shelter build on its own private land.

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You can reach Silke Wobel here:

Information-Shop "Noahs little Ark"
Frau Silke Wrobel

Daskalogiannis 39
GR 73123 Chania / Crete

Greece

Phone / Fax:

0030 (0) 28210 55030

Mobile:

0030 (0) 6946 881155