Discovering Turks & Caicos islands : Responsible Tourism and Community Impact | Jane Parker-Rauw

hello Jane thank you so much for joining me on the world vegan travel podcast today how are you doing I'm doing just great and I'm so excited today to have you on here and to have you talking about a destination which is the Turks and caos Island and reasons why people would like to go to this place to visit I'm sure some people have heard of these sets of islands but I don't think it's really as popular as some of it neighbors perhaps but you don't sound like you are from um an island in Central America would you mind sharing a little bit about sort of your background and and what it is that you're doing in the Turks and Kos for sure I came here about 27 years ago 28 years ago originally from England I've lived here more than I've ever lived anywhere else so this is my home to and cus is a fantastic country wonderful people I originally came here nothing to do with dogs although now obviously I'm the founder of the dog rescue here but I came here just for 12 months on a contract to open a spa and work here then I was due to move to New York to do the same thing and the second day I was here I met my uh husband now ex-husband I've ended up staying here the rest is history as they say so that's how I got here so you founded an organization potcake Place why did you set this up what was the need for this kind of organization in order to be able to work here when you first come here you have to have a work permit you can't just come here and work in a supermarket or a bar you have to a a work perit and I wasn't uh working so there's a big need for volunteers I used to volunteer to read to kids in the schools while I was living here I saw the thousands of dogs that are born here on the streets if anyone's everever been in any Caribbean country or South America or other places you'll see that there's a lot of Street dogs and I started volunteering through an organization here to help with this issue every day I'd go out with this organization and try and pick up dogs and it's staying new to them there's no shelter in the tux cers islands for dogs and so there was nowhere to put these dogs when we were in the process of going out and talking to people and spaying Nutri dog we had a lot of puppy and at the end of the day there would be 10 to 15 puppies we had nowhere to put these dogs and so every day I would do that and then one day I came across this pot and I had to take it to the vet to put it down and I'm standing there and I'm looking at this puppy was about six to eight weeks beautiful little girl this little black and white puppy little white strip down its nose little squiffy ears little tail that curled all the way over its back I'm like you know what I can't do this anymore and the vet came back and I said you know I'm going to take this puppy home and I took the puppy home and 3 days later I get a call from someone living on the island and they said hey Jane I understand you're helping out with the dogs there's no rush but my wife and I would like to adopt a dog it's got to be a female cuz we have a male dog already but my wife grew up in England and her favorite story was a story about a badger if you come across a black and white puppy with a white strip down its nose little tail that crawls over its back with a little white tip at the end of the tail can you let us know we're going to adopt it and we're going to call it promy Brocket after the badger I said funny you should say that I have the exact puppy and at that moment I said you know what there's a place for every pupcake I'm like I'm going to start a popcake place instead of putting these pups down because there's nowhere to put them I'm going to take them in and we're going to adopt them out and that's why I started this so instead of putting them down I took them in and adopted them out now we're adopting out over 500 a year the goal is to not have them being born in the first place that's what we're trying to do but when they are we take them in and we adopt out every single one my goal is to be run out of business quite frankly is what we're trying to do here but that's how I started it wow that's quite a story why do you call it potcake Place what's the story behind the name so the pupcake is the dog from the Turks and Kos islands and the Bahamas it's been here for a couple of hundred years so every island has their own version so in Jamaica they're called Jam Pops in uh Puerto Rico they're called satos so they all have their individual name here they're called potcakes it's named after what the locals used to feed them so what's left in the pot at the end of cooking so when they had peas and rice and used to add to that as the went on what was left burnt on the bottom of the saucepan they would scrape off and form into a crab cake type shape and throw it to the dogs so it's the cake of the pot in the Bahamas they're called Royal Bahamian popcakes they're very Posh over there but here they're called Pop I was wondering why you would called popcake place I thought maybe it was named after one of your first dogs that you rescued or something but actually no it it makes perfect sense cake is a recognized dog obviously it's not on the American Kennel Association but it is a recognized type of dog genetically a pupcake if you're going to break down the DNA is mainly English labrador German Shepherd and English Foxhound terer that shows three main breeds that make up a pocket English labrador Shepherd terer you can have doans Chihuahuas Border Collies all sorts but predominantly if you going to adopt one of these dogs you need to know that they're going to be basically a labrador Shepherd terer mix and they average 50 when they're fully grown that's so interesting so can you Orient us a little bit in terms of like where it is what it's made of maybe the capital city the climate those kinds of things please so uh turs and cus is everyone calls it the Caribbean it's actually technically not in the Caribbean it's an Atlantic Ocean territory so uh that's where it is it is very easy to get to I'm not exactly sure of the mileage but on a plane it is an hour and 20 minutes south of Miami we are between Haiti and the Bahamas if you look at a map and see we are the southern end of the Bahamas chain a lot of people think that we are the Bahamas we are cousins of the Bahamas but we are not in the Bahamas it's a chain of over 40 Islands the capital is Grand Turk although most tourism industry is on providencial if you were to get a flight we have direct flights from Canada the UK and major cities in the states it's uh very easy to get to it's British overseen independently governed we drive on the correct side of the road here we drive on the left is you know as it should be it's a very safe place to come in vacation reasons to come here it's the best beach in in the world if you don't like the water or the beach then this is not a place to come all the beauty of the Turks and cers is in the water it's got the third biggest coal Reef in the world and so coming here to dive is a spectacular destination I don't died myself it's also got one of the best golf courses I am told in the Caribbean if you're into golfing or fishing which obviously I don't do snorkling scuba diving this is a wonderful place to be the island themselves are not very beautiful it's a very flat Dusty scrubby Island if you're looking at going to you know Costa Rica or somewhere with the mountains and stuff that's not here so don't expect that here all of the beauty of the tux and cus is water one of the issues here is it's not cheap so don't expect to come here on a budget holiday we only have two all-inclusives hotels a Club Med which is adults only and a beaches which is a Sandals Resort where you can bring your family but again it's not cheap it's a a wonderful place to be easy to get to and uh you can come here and and do good on your vacation by uh taking a puppy to the beach how is it that visitors might be able to contribute in a positive way when they go to visit the Turks and Kos islands in the charity we have between 70 and 100 dogs in our care in any any one time we don't have a local PetSmart or you know places that we can just go and Shop uh as I said things are not cheap here a lot of people visit and they'll bring us a little suitcase or something of donations we desperately need help with basic things like peee pads little blanket toys collars puppy milk formula all these things that we need a lot of people will bring a suitcase full of supplies that they can donate to us everything that comes into the country is charged an import Duty that's part of Taxation here I used to get excited when you know a man bought me flowers now it's a suitcase of peee pads I get so excited because uh we don't have any right simple things old towels use towels newspaper the charity everything people come down and they bring that for us so they can help in that way we also have socialization walks in the morning which are very important for our dogs and so every morning morning at 10:00 we allow our fully vaccinated dog out for socialization board so people can help by just coming along and taking a puppy out and you can see a pup that's coming to us that has never been touched by human hand before you can see them get with the program like they're getting used to a family and people so now that pup's going to be adoptable whereas before it wasn't we don't charge for this it's not an Excursion but just for for 2 hours every morning we allow our fully vaccinated puppies out with families and they can just take them over the road to the beach even just sitting at the coffee shop you know with a pup and and stroking it that's a huge help people also helpers spr oping to be curious so when they're coming down and they saying look I'm not adopting a puppy I've only got three or four but I'm traveling back to New York or I'm traveling back to Chicago how can I help we have a approved waiting homes in the states we check people out fully we don't just send off dogs so in order to adopt a dog they fill in application they have to get vet references and everything else and once we've done that we have to find a way of getting that pup to New Jersey or Philadelphia and people say look I'm traveling back and so that pup goes for that person which we pay for for the pup to be on the flight then the new owner meets them at the other end and that's how we get pups into the states to new homes so people can volunteer to do that there's other Charities here not just dog rescue you know there's children's homes and other things a lot of people bring us donations NE I know it sounds ridiculous but newspapers we have so many crates here we have between 70 and 100 dogs and they all need lining with newspapers and we don't have them right after the Cups have had all of their vaccinations we now want to start getting them socialized a lot of these pups have been on the street and they're not used to human kindness right far from it and so we now want that puppy to start going out with the family some days I want them out with a family with kids some days I want them out with a big guy with a baseball hat on you know we want to start introducing them to different people and so people come every morning and take our pups out for little walks at 10:00 we don't charge for this a lot of people sign up and come in in the morning and help to bathe all of our puppies every morning our pups need to get bathed sounds cute but it's not very glamorous I'm going to warn you there's a lot of poop happening right but we have a lot of pups that need to be bathed and so people sign up for that also people sign up to help Courier puppies back into the states mainly 40% of our approved homes are to people that are not here in the Turks and cakers and so we need to find a way of getting that puppy to Chicago or New York or Seattle wherever it is and people sign up and say look I'm not adopting but I'm going back on this flight and the new owner pays the fee for the pup to go on the flight pup gets carried on in little bag just sits at your feet and the new owner meets you when you come off the plate if I understand well I think the reason why it's good to have a flight volunteer is because it's much cheaper than just frighting the dogs by themselves am I right there the problem with here is we cannot send them off without an owner without a person traveling there has to be someone on the plane we don't have freight services here the only freight service we have here is a company called IBC which is like phex and they will take dogs just to Miami we don't actually have a service here where we could send dogs to New York without someone traveling with the dog so the only way we can get pups off here is uh when they're under 20 and they just get carried on but there has to be a person on the plane a dog can't travel by itself the only other way we can send dogs off is with private jets we have a lot of very lovely people that come here that have their own private jets I'm not one of them unfortunately I wish I was but we have a lot of people that come here and every time they come they offer to carry dogs back for us on their private jcks and that's how we get the adult dogs off and was a hugely Factor during the uh after the pandemic we had no way of getting the dogs off the island cuz no commercial airlines were flying back and forth and so I had 50 60 puppies that in six months turned into dogs and I had no way of getting them off the island it was the people with their private jets that saved the day and so after the pandemic people volunteered to carry pups off the first day I sent 17 dogs off on someone's private jet the man had no seat of his own he sat on the floor and carried 17 of our dogs off on a private jet into New Hampshire people with private jets that is a huge thing that we need so that's the only way we can get dogs off the island under 20 on a commercial flight if they're bigger than that then we need a private jet so the next time the Kardashians are down if anyone knows them if they could uh let us know what we need their services that's so interesting I know from my time in southeast Asia and having transported my cats overseas before there was always the choice and by the sounds of it you don't have it of having the dog travel or the cat travel as unaccompanied luggage but the reason why that was less desirable for the rescue organizations in Thailand for example it was because it was much more expensive but actually in this case it's just not even a possibility that's so interesting we don't have it that's why tourists when they come here they're not interested in adopting a dog can save that dog without having to keep it they just carry that Pub on the flight and the new owner meets at the other end at least 40% of our dogs go off that way so if you're coming here please contact us and let us know your flight schedule and you can save a dog without having to keep it for the next 15 years I love it I love it well definitely I think everyone that goes to the Turks and Kos Islands could be considering that as an option for sure now you mentioned the I guess the big reason that draws people to the Turks and caos islands in the first place is because of the beautiful beaches tell us about those Grace Bay Beach is the main Beach here in Providenciales this country is made up of a lot of islands the main one that everyone knows and sees is Providenciales or Provo as people call it here for short p r o v o Provo so that's where all of the flights come in the main Beach here is Grace Bay Beach which is 18 Mi long that's all the photos that you see with the turquoise water and the white sand that is exactly how it looks it's not photoshopped it's a beautiful beach that you can just walk into it's protected by a coral reef around on the North side where it's really beautiful to swim and snorkel in the coal Reef here in the tux and cus is the third largest Co Reef in the world and so it's a huge Haven per divers to come here if you don't like the water or the beach or boats this is not the country to visit it's not a beautiful tropical Caribbean island it's very scrubby but when you open your door in the morning and you look at that water it's just stunning it's very easy to swim in and snorkel in it's a very nice place to come here and do that and great for your first dive so if you're into diving this is the place to be we have JoJo the dolphin which is a very famous dolphin here he's now married with Children and uh he is yeah he loves to appear when people are out snorkeling on the boats he turns up we have no um dolphinariums here it's purely Beautiful by nature and so if you want to come and and uh see uh beautiful Stingrays and dolphins where they should be then this is the place to come there are a particular type of iguana and they have a special Island home and they're also protected there tell us about that well there's an island here that everyone calls iguana Island but it's little water key it's the protected species the guanas that are there you're not allowed to feed them or anything like that tur and cakers has done wonderful things with iguanas and the Dolphins like I was saying when the dolphinarium closed in England brought the Dolphins here to rehabilitate them and so if you are really into that that's a wonderful place to be so you can get a beautiful little boat trip over to the island and walk around and see these iguanas living wonderfully in their natural habitat and the the fee you know that's included helps to maintain that there's boat excursions where they'll take you out to the reef and do some snoring and then take you to little water key and see the iguanas and it's also a beautiful place to come for sunset cruises so going out in the afternoon to watch the sunset it truly is Beautiful by Nature the beautiful country to be in but as is all countries there are things about it that are not so beautiful the dogs on the streets are the main thing and that's what we're trying to do here by stopping them being born in the first place and taking them in a question I have for you is about safety because I was talking with a friend of mine and she recently was offered and accepted a job in Trinidad and Tobago and throughout the interview process she learned that Trinidad and Tobago was actually quite a a dangerous place it has quite a high murder rate which surprised me to learn that so how is it in Turks and caos in relation to Crime specifically directed towards tourists TKS and cus has uh the lowest crime rate in the area does crime exist yes but most of the crime that is here is not uh towards tourism it's mainly gang Warf fares that kind of happening in the local areas the police are really cracking down all that actually and being a British territory they have the help from the United Kingdom also from the Bahamas and Jamaica so we we have a lot of great police officers here from the UK and the Bahamas and Jamaica that are here dealing with that crime with tourists is very low I mean does it happen mainly Penny crime you know if you leave your car at the beach it may get taken but generally not you can leave your house unlocked at night as a whole the Turks and caos is a very safe place to be it's not like going to a lot of places where people book The all inclusives because they don't want to leave the hotel because they feel unsafe that is not the Turks and cakers I would recommend Club Med for adults and beaches which is a sandal resort was very nice very expensive I recommend when people come here not to stay at the all inclusives there's a lot of beautiful hotels here there's a lot of great restaurants it's very safe to walk around I really can't emphasize enough that it's very safe use your common sense you know just with anything when traveling but it's a very safe place to be we've got some amazing restaurants and in the last five years we're getting a lot way more vegan options obviously I'm vegan but now we can actually go out to eat in lovely restaurants whereas five six years ago they never had you know it was the French fries or pasta with tomato sauce right but now we have a lot of restaurants that have a lot of really really nice high-end uh vegan options here and that's really increasing so oh wow yep that's really nice to know and I guess that leads me to my next question which is getting around in the Turks and caos Islands so how is it to get around you have taxis Ubers we have taxis taxis are very expensive I recommend if you come here and stay here if you're not going to rent a car stay in the main area which is the grace Bay Area and you can walk to all of the places and then I recommend if you're here for a week or two weeks you don't need a rental car for the whole time that you're here if you're staying in the grace Bay Area I really recommend renting a car for a day or two and then you can go out and uh uh see the other areas in the Turks and cakers you can rent a car for two days way cheaper than being in a taxi taxis are very expensive so y but if you're staying in the grace Bay Area you don't need a taxi you can walk to all the places if you're staying in Long Bay the area on the south of the island is called Long Bay if you're into kite boarding that's kite boarders Paradise but uh you're going to need a car now Grand tur is another Island that is beautiful so if you're into a more rural type of vacation then look into Grand Turk or North cus Providenciales is where all the restaurants are and everything else so if people want to go from one Island to to another is there a a foot passenger or a car fery service between them to going to North cus and middle cus is a water ferry that goes to North cus and then you can drive to Middle cus going to gr Turk you have to take a PL Before We Say Goodbye and everybody goes and books their um next vacation to the Turks and Kos Island can you tell us again how people can connect with you can find the forms and the contact Page information about becoming a flight volunteer all of those things that people can connect with you in your work yeah for sure yeah so we're potcake place so potcake is p o t c a k we have our website potcake place.com we're also very active on Instagram and Twitter so you can find us on all those things contacting us to come down please contact us before you come down and hopefully we can book you in to help the puppies in the morning and do all these things and the puppy walking we do like these pups to go out for walk but I do want to emphasize that even though the puppy walks are very cute and wonderful what we are trying to do here is stop those puppies being born in the first place and our main thing here at po place is education and spaying and nuturing and so donating to us is what we need if there's any vets out there volunteer vets or vet techs want to come down and help by volunteering their time then we really want to hear from you if you contact us we will find a way for you to help us you have this incredible team of volunteers that support you in so many ways and of course people that come and help out with the puppies and adopt and donate and all of these things Jane thanks again and have a great weekend see you later

2024-08-03 16:45

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