Press
Press kit.
Everything on this page is confirmed by the founder and may be quoted directly. Nothing here is estimated except where it says so.
In brief
The Starseeds Foundation began with one puppy in a Cappadocia street.
Saelyra Salazar was on a paid tour in Cappadocia, Turkey. The hot-air balloons were minutes from lifting when she found a one-month-old puppy dying in the street. She cancelled the tour, forfeited the cost, and picked him up.
It was a Sunday and everything was closed. The hotel called its own veterinary hospital and the vets opened it specially. They said the dog was a few hours from death. He was treated with antibiotics and fluids, and recovered over several days. She named him Doccio, after Cappadocia.
Because a puppy cannot fly to the United States before six months of age, Doccio was kept in Istanbul by a local woman who fed and medicated street dogs daily at her own expense. He contracted parvovirus, spent weeks in hospital and nearly died a second time; his treatment was paid for from Miami. He was later driven to Spain, collected there in person, and brought to the United States once he was old enough to fly.
Twenty-one further dogs were brought out of Turkey in the same period. Around a thousand have been rescued in the past year. Roughly five thousand street dogs still need homes in the areas the foundation covers.
The foundation has been funded entirely by its founder, from the proceeds of a business she closed and largely gave away. It has never run a public fundraising campaign. It is now asking for support for the first time.
Fact sheet
For copying straight into a piece.
- Organisation
- Starseeds Foundation
- Founder
- Saelyra Salazar
- Based
- Miami, United States. Operations in Istanbul and Cappadocia, Turkey.
- Work
- Rescue, veterinary treatment, feeding and rehoming of street dogs in Turkey.
- Began with
- Doccio, a one-month-old puppy found dying in a street in Cappadocia.
- Rescued in the past year
- Approximately 1,000 dogs.
- Brought out of Turkey alongside Doccio
- 21 dogs.
- Still without homes
- Approximately 5,000 street dogs in the areas covered.
- Funding
- Self-funded by the founder to date. No public fundraising campaign has been run.
- Paid staff
- None. No salaries, offices or fundraising overhead.
- Contact
- info@saelyra.com
On the two approximate figures
The figures of roughly 1,000 rescued and roughly 5,000 still without homes are the founder's own working estimates from the ground, not audited totals, and we would rather you describe them that way.
Founder
Saelyra Salazar
Saelyra Salazar is a Miami-based clinical hypnotherapist and the founder of Psynergia and the Starseeds Foundation.
She holds degrees in business and finance and in psychology, and is completing a master's degree toward licensure as a mental health counsellor in Florida.
She founded the Starseeds Foundation after the rescue of Doccio in Cappadocia, and has funded its work herself since. She works with carers on the ground in Turkey rather than running a staffed organisation.
Name and usage
Her name in all press and public use is Saelyra Salazar. Please use it in full on first mention and Saelyra thereafter.
Quotes cleared for use
Attributable to Saelyra Salazar, founder.
I have funded this myself. I can no longer carry it alone.
The balloons were minutes from lifting. I cancelled the tour, lost the money, and picked him up.
A dying puppy in the street is an ordinary sight there. That is the part I could not accept.
What we call the shelter is not a shelter. It is built out of boxes.
Enquiries
Interviews, photographs and footage.
Photographs and video of the dogs in Istanbul, and of Doccio, can be requested at the address below. The founder is available for interview.
Press contact: info@saelyra.com
Please do not use stock photography of street dogs to illustrate this story. We would rather send you a real photograph of a real animal, even if it takes a day.