Stray dogs are a significant part of daily life

Stray dogs are a significant part of daily life in ?stanbul and most other cities in Turkey. Loved and protected by a few, tolerated by many and hated by even more, tens of thousands of them roam the streets in a culture that isn’t exactly crazy about non-human city dwellers.

They have been around for centuries; ancient Ottoman texts by civil servants ruminate on what to do about ?stanbul’s growing stray dog population. Mark Twain, in his notes on ?stanbul, wrote in 1861 that he had never seen such doleful-eyed and broken-hearted stray dogs anywhere else in his life.

Although Turkey has taken a more humane approach to stray dogs than most Western countries — which is also the main reason why Turkey still has them — mass killings have always been a method authorities turned to, despite the failure of this method to solve the problem.

Authorities in modern Turkey are allegedly following in the footsteps of their grandfathers, despite a law that aims to ensure that every dog is neutered or spayed, vaccinated and allowed to live. Hundreds of dogs in ?stanbul neighborhoods go missing everyday, and little quadruped bodies are found dead in mass graves, apparently dead from poisoned food after suffering for days — but municipalities deny having played a role in this.

Animal rights activists in Turkey, weary of not being taken seriously by authorities at home, have taken their fight to the international platform, where support for them is growing. Thanks to an Internet-based campaign against dog killings in Turkey, hundreds of people in ?stanbul and in cities of at least nine other nations — including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico, Kenya and Australia — will get together on Oct. 4, World Animal Day, in front of the Turkish diplomatic missions in their countries to convey their message against animal cruelty.

The support is most welcome and much needed by animal activists in Turkey, who have long realized that they need international pressure to bring authorities’ attention to the problem. It is not only that they stand alone in a culture with an increasingly growing but traditionally weak history of animal rights movements, but that it actually works, animal rights activist Tolga Aky?ld?z proudly states.

An international Internet campaign titled “Turkey, hell on earth for animals,” aiming to get travelers to boycott Turkish vacations, has finally gotten a response from Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertu?rul Günay, who promised to increase “funds for dog shelters” in Turkey in an identical response letter sent to everyone who wrote to Turkish authorities as part of the campaign. “And we hear that, although it is not part of his ministry’s jurisdiction, he is taking some initiative to address the problem,” says Aky?ld?z (32), an economics major who currently co-owns an IT company. Read more at www.todayszaman.com

Be Sociable with Altinkum News, Share Altinkum Observer!

• 

Tags: dogs, dogs in didim, dogs in street, help dogs, strays in altinkum, street dogs

Category: National