Reports from Turkey say that local authorities have ordered street dogs be slaughtered in an apparent attempt to reduce their numbers.
Horrifying details have been shared on Twitter of dogs being beaten to death with shovels and their bodies dumped in trenches.
Trenches dug at Turkish Authority run shelter in Konya for the mass slaughter of street dogs. This barbarism must end #Turkey pic.twitter.com/THHMk45h4Z
— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) November 27, 2022
Shocking images, many of which are too distressing to publish, show helpless animals being dragged by ropes before being killed.
The brutal war on street dogs in Turkey should shock the wold #Turkey https://t.co/fEcZpC7vnw
— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) November 27, 2022
Outraged by the presidential decree allowing local authorities to target street dogs, Turkish animal rights protestors have taken to the streets to try and stop the killings.
Turkish animal rights campaigners take to streets protest against brutal beating to death of streets dogs by Turkish Authorities #Turkey pic.twitter.com/iCfLU5nnSd
— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) November 26, 2022
Much of the brutality is reportedly situated in the eastern Konya area.
Brave Turkish animal rights defenders take to gates Turkish Authority run dog killing shelter in Konya @MuratPompidu #Turkey pic.twitter.com/HXJJ8dNcs7
— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) November 26, 2022
Many street dogs in Turkey are emaciated from hunger and thirst,
Street dogs being starved & beaten to death with shovels in Turkey on orders of Turkish Authorities this insane barbarism must stop #Turkey pic.twitter.com/O9qyrYHkaI
— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) November 26, 2022
Turkish street dog’s battle for survival isn’t new, last September it was reported that an Ankara court banned an app which was set up to allow users to locate and kill them.
“Havrita, made up of the words “woof” and “map” in Turkish, was launched in May and gave users the ability to pinpoint the location of stray dogs.”
The report states that “animal rights groups have noted an increase in the number of animals found dead since the app was launched.”
At the time lawyer Gulsaniye Ekmekci of the Istanbul Bar’s Animal Rights Commission said her organisation, “began to hear more about poisoning cases or mass killings,”.
Turkish street dogs were the subject of an award winning 2020 documentary called ‘Stray’ in which American director Elizabeth Lo gathered stories of street dogs, at the time saying that Turkey had a ‘no kill no capture’ policy towards stray animals.
https://youtu.be/uC38B
Lo stated that many of the dogs she interacted with while filming stray were “fully integrated into the urban fabric and really well socialised”.
Hearing of the violent targeting of the dogs, Lo returned to Turkey to rescue the main protagonist of her documentary ‘Zaytin’.
After successfully locating the female dog, Lo had her adopted by a family living in the outskirts of Istanbul.
Late last year CNN reported that Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a decree to round up street dogs after a child was bitten, however the report states that it was “unclear” whether a street dog was involved in the incident.
