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Saving Turkey's Stray Dogs

From Ipek G. Kulahci
July 2024

You may know about the dogs and the cats who live outdoors in Turkey; whether you are in the city or in a rural area, you can encounter free-ranging outdoor dogs and cats who have co-existed with people for hundreds of years. These animals have been protected by animal rights laws since 2004, are part of what makes Turkey unique in the eyes of many locals and tourists.

UPDATE AUGUST 24, 2024: Stop Türkiye’s Gruesome Mass Killing of 4 Million Homeless Dogs & Cats

PETITIONS TO SIGN:

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The proposal has been presented to the parliament and the first meeting was held on Wednesday July 17. The meeting will continue on July 22. This is the time to speak up for the animals!

Dogs

"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
~ The Little Prince, A, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)

BACKGROUND

You may know about the dogs and the cats who live outdoors in Turkey; whether you are in the city or in a rural area, you can encounter free-ranging outdoor dogs and cats who have co-existed with people for hundreds of years. These animals have been protected by animal rights laws since 2004, are part of what makes Turkey unique in the eyes of many locals and tourists.

Most of these animals are not feral because they live together with people. They are also not strays because the locals take care of them; the local people have already formed strong bonds with these dogs, and feed them daily and care about their well-being and safety.

Turkey's unique position towards free-ranging outdoor dogs have been explored in the documentary Stray by Elizabeth Lo, accompanied by two insightful essays by Professor Marc Bekoff on Turkey's free-ranging dogs and why they have become international icons.

Here is what is currently happening in Turkey:

Despite years of co-existence, there is currently a heightened state of opposition towards dogs. Recently, the president proposed capturing all the dogs, putting them into shelters, and then killing those dogs who are not claimed within 30 days of coming into the shelter.

The purported goal of the proposal is to protect people from dogs and to reduce human-dog conflicts. However, the reality is that it is the dogs who need to be protected from people. Through the years, there have been countless reports of dogs being physically abused, tortured, injured, raped, and killed.

There are not enough shelters or rescues to house all the outdoor dogs in Turkey. In fact, most of us fear that the dogs may either be immediately killed after they are captured, or released in uninhabited areas without any food, water, or protection.

The parliament will be meeting soon to vote on this proposal. Although the proposal has not been legally accepted, it has already increased hatred towards dogs and encouraged people to freely kill dogs, as reported in media.

So, what can you do?

1. Before Monday July 22, y you can open this Google document that contains the list of the parliament members and an example text prepared by Hayvan Hakları İzleme Komitesi (HAKİM) (as also shared on X/Twitter). You can email the parliament members either this prepared text or your own text explaining why you think they should oppose this proposition (Google Translate). I am attaching a copy of the letter that I have sent (in Turkish).

2. You can share the above and support the ongoing animal protection movement with #SokaktayımYanındayım #SokakHayvanlarıSahipsizDeğil #YasayıGeriÇek #KatliamaOyumHayır #YasaGeçirilemezr
3. If any of you happen to be in Turkey, you can join the protests that are happening across the country and are announced on the Yaşam İçin Yasa website.

If there is anything you'd like to learn more about, or if you would like to help in other ways, feel free to get in touch with me at [email protected].

Posted on All-Creatures.org: July 19, 2024
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