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 outrage generated by these videos is part of a growing furor between Turks who have grown tired of the aggressiveness of stray dogs and others 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.
“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.
With Turkey’s stray dog population reaching four million, according to the government, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted on Wednesday that the country “needs to take more drastic measures.”
“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.
Turkey is classified as a “high-risk” country for rabies by the World Health Organisation and, according to the government, there have been 3,544 road accidents involving dogs in the past five years, killing 55 people and injuring more than 5,000.
But critics say the bill would lead to mass slaughter disguised as dog culling, and protests against the plan are planned for Sunday in Istanbul.
Animal rights activists say the move evokes memories of tragedies from the Ottoman era.
In 1910, an estimated 60,000 stray dolphins captured in Istanbul were transported to the remote Haylicizada reef in the middle of Turkey’s Sea of Marmara.
Having nothing else to eat, the dogs tore each other to pieces.
– “Let’s make the city safe” –
Haydar Ozkan, vice president of the country’s Animal Rights Federation (HAYKONFED), told Gazete Dvar newspaper 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 came into effect in 2021 requires local governments across the country to build evacuation shelters, with completion deadlines varying depending on the size of the area.
But activists say too few resources have been allocated to its construction.
As the controversy grew, Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Yumakli acknowledged that it was possible to curb the proliferation of stray dogs by sterilizing 70 percent of them each year.
But he noted that an average of just 260,000 feral cats have been sterilized per year over the past five years, too small a number to have an impact.
Mindful of Turkey’s reputation abroad, Erdogan said the figures showed that “the approaches of the past are not leading to solutions.”
“This issue must be resolved as soon as possible to make the city safe for everyone, especially children,” the Turkish leader said.
Turkey’s veterinary association is opposed to any plans to cull stray animals and complains that it has not been consulted.
“Culling is not the answer. Effective sterilization can reduce dog numbers in the short term,” the group 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 with the handle @Franck1936 also claimed on social media platform X that he had abandoned his bicycle journey across Turkey after dogs attacked his wheels.
“When they get on the bike, they get hooked,” he said.
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