Animal rights activists in Ankara's central Ulus Square have donned white hazmat suits, wear masks with the features of an attack dog, and hold up placards that read: "We don't deserve to die or be imprisoned for life." They are protesting against a regulation of the Turkish government on attack dogs and want to get an extension of a deadline.
Because the owners of fighting dogs had to register and sterilize their animals by January 14th.
Violators face high fines.
But many can no longer afford the 300 euros for the sterilization of their dog.
Breeding or acquiring fighting dogs has been prohibited since July 2021.
Rainer Herman
Editor in Politics.
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Because of these ordinances, owners of Pitbulls, Dogo Argentinos or other fighting dogs had abandoned their animals or given them to animal shelters, where they will languish for the rest of their lives. Because with the current regulations, they cannot be placed. Only a few municipalities have animal shelters. They are mostly poorly equipped and the sterilization capacities are limited.
Animal activist Zeynep Çoskun describes animal shelters as prisons where massacres take place. The chairman of the Turkish animal protection association Haykurder, Erman Pacali, said that it was not the dogs that were dangerous, but the government regulations on them. With a lawsuit he wants to achieve that the regulation is suspended. Pacali says the government has done nothing to stop the illegal breeding of fighting dogs since the 2004 Animal Welfare Act was passed.
The Turks' favorite animal is the cat, and they have a mixed relationship with dogs.
They have taken the shepherd dog Kangal to their hearts, but not many other dogs.
Stray dogs are therefore part of the image of a Turkish city.
The discussion about dogs picked up speed when President Tayyip Erdogan announced last July that the place for homeless dogs is not the street but the animal shelter.
Since then, the municipalities have been massacring the street dogs, says Pacali.
He blames the enemies of dogs, who spread fabricated reports of alleged attacks by dogs on people - as is the case now in the campaign against attack dogs.