Take Action! Sign The Petition Urging The Government Of Turkey To Stop The Killing Of Stray Animals Throughout The Country

Photo by: Paw Guards

Footage of a dog horribly beaten to death in a city animal rehabilitation center in Konya, Turkey, recently reignited the controversial stance that the Turkish government has on the handling of stray animals in the country. Tragically, there are reportedly an estimated 10 million strays in Turkey; approximately one for every eight citizens.

News of the appalling incident has been dominating social media, with images of an employee reportedly from the Stray Animal Care and Rehabilitation Center in Konya beating a dog to death with a shovel. Many of the posts spreading across the internet include with the hashtag #Konyadakatliamvar which translates into “There is a Massacre in Konya” in English. According to the Istanbul BIA News Network, the November 25^th travesty had reportedly been tweeted over 70,000 times in 12 hours.

“At our Animal Rehabilitation Center, we examined the incident that shocked us all, we suspended those responsible, we filed a criminal complaint, and the suspects were detained,” Uğur İbrahim Altay, Mayor of Konya Metropolitan Municipality, shared in a post of his Facebook page. “We will follow the process with precision until the end.”

Sadly, not all elected leaders seem to be concerned for the welfare of these stray animals. Although the Turkish Animal Protection Law makes it illegal to randomly collect and kill stray animals, municipalities reportedly do not hesitate to kill dogs outside or inside of the shelters where they are held.

Last December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered municipalities to remove stray dogs from the streets and put them in shelters. Many believed this gave them the authority to discard animals at will.

A petition that was created four days ago to urge the President of Turkey to end the slaughter of stray animals and punish those responsible has already received 235,819 signatures of its 300,000 goal.

As noted by the petition, “municipalities, whose duty is to vaccinate, sterilize, treat, and return animals to the place where they were taken, either directly slaughter the animals, imprison them in shelters in bad conditions, or sentence them to death by leaving them in desolate places.”

“If there are problems caused by stray animals in the country, it is not those animals but municipalities and public officials who have not fulfilled their duties for years,” continued the petition which is urging for the following changes to be made.

1- All municipal and shelter officials who kill, torture, starve, or do not treat animals; and their rulers, who turned a blind eye to them and did not take precautions, should be judged.

2- The Animal Rights Law should be rearranged with the participation of non-governmental organizations working on the issue, and the criminal sanction of violence against animals should be increased.

3- Improve the conditions of all needed shelters and increase their control.

4- No extermination of animals, but mobilization, sterilization, and vaccination should be carried out.

“Let’s once again emphasize the importance of Adopting, not Buying. Please save lives from Konya Shelter, or any shelter,” stated one of the hundreds of concerned citizens trying to help the animals. “Do not leave the lives in the shelter alone, visit them, let them know that they are not orphaned.”

Please help to save the innocent animals of Turkey from being illegally killed, confined, and tortured by signing the petition, HERE!