The video shows people rushing to help an elderly woman who had been hit by one of Istanbul’s many stray dogs on the streets, the latest in a series of dog-on-dog incidents frequently circulating on Turkish social media.
The anger generated by these videos is part of a growing conflict between Turks who have grown tired of the aggressive behavior of stray dogs and those who sympathize with their plight.
Fed up with attacks by stray dogs, activists persuaded the government to enact laws aimed at reducing the stray dog population.
Photo: Reuters
“We want a city without dogs” is one commonly used slogan.
But the plan has drawn fierce protests from animal rights activists because of the measures proposed.
The bill, which is expected to be introduced in Parliament soon, calls for mass trapping and sterilisation of unhoused animals.
Finally, if stray cats are not adopted within 30 days, they will be euthanized.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that the country “needs to take more drastic measures” after the government said the number of stray dogs had reached four million.
“We have a problem with stray dogs in our country that doesn’t exist in developed countries,” he said, pointing to an increase in rabies cases and road accidents involving dogs.
The WHO classifies Turkey as a “high-risk” country for rabies, and the government says there have been 3,544 road accidents involving dogs in the past five years, killing 55 people and injuring more than 5,000.
Critics say the bill would lead to mass slaughter disguised as dog culling, and protests were due to take place in Istanbul yesterday against the plans.
Animal rights activists say the move evokes memories of tragedies from the Ottoman era.
In 1910, an estimated 60,000 stray dogs were captured in Istanbul and sent to the deserted Haylicizada Reef in the middle of Turkey’s Sea of Marmara. With nothing else to eat, the dogs began to eat each other.
Haydar Ozkan, vice president of Turkey’s Animal Rights League, told online news site Gazete Duvar that the government should learn from this tragedy and prioritise effective sterilisation and animal shelters.
“1,100 of Turkey’s 1,394 municipalities have no shelters,” Ozcan said, adding that the few that do exist don’t have the means to sterilize the dogs.
A law that took effect in 2021 requires local governments across the country to build shelters, with completion deadlines that vary depending on the size of the community, but activists say too few resources are allocated to building them.
As the debate grew, Turkey’s Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said it was possible to curb the proliferation of stray dogs by sterilising 70 percent of them each year.
But he added that only an average of 260,000 feral cats have been sterilized per year over the past five years — too few to have an impact.
Mindful of Turkey’s reputation abroad, Erdogan said the figures showed that “the ways of the past have not led to solutions.”
“This issue must be resolved as soon as possible to make the road safe for everyone, especially children,” he said.
The Turkish Veterinary Association opposes any plans to cull stray animals, saying it was not consulted.
“Culling is not the answer. Effective sterilization can reduce dog numbers in the short term,” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, people concerned about the stray dog population have been sharing horror stories, including one about a young girl in Ankara who was attacked by a dog and left with severe bite marks.
A tourist using the handle @Franck1936 posted on X that he had given up on cycling across Turkey after a dog attacked his wheel.
“Cycling gets them hooked,” he said.
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