The smell should be gone. It has been two weeks since a dog was found in this windswept wasteland. The stench had alerted residents of Karapürçek, a popular neighborhood in the high-altitude suburbs of Ankara. An investigation has been opened. 12 animal remains are being examined by forensic medicine, which must deliver its report shortly. Everything points to poisoning.
The adoption on July 29 of a law aimed at regulating the population of stray dogs – four million registered according to an official source – triggered a wave of local massacres across Turkey. According to the text, only dogs judged “aggressive” or suffer from one “infectious disease” must be euthanized by veterinarians following a procedure that is not yet known but should include the injection of approved ketamine (an anesthetic). In short, the small Karapürçek mass grave should never have existed.
No permission
On the night of August 8-9, Güven Tastekin, a lawyer at the Ankara bar, was sent to the scene. If the smell is still there, it means other bodies are buried. “Look, everything has been covered with earth,” describes the lawyer, pointing to the ground, behind a barrier. According to him, the guilty will not be convicted: “The municipality trusts that the law says that it does what it wants. » Although its application is suspended upon the publication of implementing decrees, the new law is known as “on slaughter” released all forms of violent behavior towards these animals. Bodies were found in several cities, in Niğde, Bartin, Ahlat and even Silivri.
In Türkiye, stray dogs are part of the decor. Each neighborhood has its share. “Aunties”, these ladies from the ground floor of the buildings, feed them. A generally peaceful coexistence. However, the fear of stray dogs now seems to have gripped part of the country. Victims’ associations put pressure on elected officials. The local press reports on more or less substantiated cases of bites every day. In some cases, as clips from surveillance cameras show, local residents have decided to take justice into their own hands.
It’s been four years since Cansu Tekin, a volunteer from Ankara whose days consist of finding adoptive families for these dogs, has seen this discontent grow. “Attacks are extremely rare and that is the reality of certain breedsshe explains. Most dogs do no harm. The economic crisis (Turkey is experiencing some of the highest inflation in the world, editor’s note.) makes people look for scapegoats. »
Sanctions against recalcitrant elected officials
Karapürçek is a textbook case. Far from downtown, these families, known to be conservative, are sensitive to rumors about dogs, according to several residents. Children’s safety above all else. The residential towers overlook the yellowed hills of Ankara’s suburbs. Children can run there between the piles of rubbish. An ideal sanctuary for stray animals, like so many others on the outskirts of Turkey’s hastily built boom towns. Except that here there isn’t a single one left on the horizon.
A resident standing in front of his garage says the problem “is settled”. Another that there have never been any dogs here. Where have they gone? The answer lies in a kennel next to the windy mass grave discovered by Güven Tastekin. Locked five to a cage and ready to be slaughtered. This time they will be done legally in compliance with the procedure and implementing decrees. There will be a formal agreement from the municipality. The law states that recalcitrant elected officials who refuse to kill stray dogs in their area will be fined or jailed.
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Stray Dogs’ highly political psychodrama
July 24:“Our people want safe streets”declares Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, justifying his bill on killing stray dogs.
July 28: opposition MPs, who are in favor of a sweeping sterilization campaign, protest in the semi by donning white gloves stained with fake blood.
July 29: The Turkish assembly, where President Erdogan’s Islamic conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) has a majority, is voting in favor of the law allowing the culling of dogs deemed aggressive or suffering from an incurable disease.
