Stray cats and dogs in Turkey
Turkey: A paradise for stray cats and dogs
If you are a tourist or a newcomer in Turkey one of the most surprising things you’ll probably see is how stray dogs and cats are integrated in people’s daily lives. According to the New York Times there are about 130.000 dogs and 125.000 cats in Istanbul.
Turkish people love cats and dogs, that is why you can see them almost in every street, where they stay in shelters (click here to know about the dog boarding in naples fl), drink and eat food supplied by local municipalities. Cats and dogs are part of the Turkish landscape, you’ll find them inside markets, shopping malls, restaurants, cafes and houses.
How Turkey started to take care of street cats and dogs
But Turkey was not always a paradise for stray animals. During the 90s and 2000s Istanbul and other Turkish cities had to deal with aggressive and sick cats and dogs that infected people with various diseases such as rabies. As in many other countries, in Turkey sick and harmful cats and dogs were killed in order to stop the spread of diseases and to protect society. But these measures didn’t work. According to the World Health Administration (WHO) killing stray animals usually leads to more aggression of wild cats and dogs towards society.
In 2004 the national Turkish administrations started to adopt laws to protect stray cats and dogs, create shelters and rehabilitation centers, and supply them with foods, vaccination services, chips and medical operations.
How do we take care of stray animals?
Legislations about what to do with stray cats and dogs change every 15 years in Turkey, but since the beginning of the 21rst most measures are focused on care and protection. Almost in every Turkish city there are Municipality Centers for Street Cats and Dogs. They take care of feeding, shelter, and medical necessities such as sterilizations, vaccinations and other medical checks. Stray cats and dogs are not only taken care of by local administrations, but also by people, who love them.
Technologization is also being introduced to the world of stray cats and dogs. In the last few years we’ve seen new automatic feeding machines for cats and dogs in parks invented by Turkish companies.
During national lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 and 2020 many stray dogs and cats were left without any aid and care. In order to prevent them from dying and getting ill, the government and local municipalities gave permission to go out on the streets to feed animals and take care of them.
Eskisehir’s cats and dogs
Living in Eskisehir locals and foreigners get used to sharing streets, food and love with stray cats and dogs. Whenever we go to parks we find shelters for cats and dogs with water and food, blankets for the winter and many dogs running around or sleeping on the grass waiting to play and to be pet. They are not harmful and they don’t bite, they are used to humans and they love to be cuddled.
If you are still interested in knowing more about stray cats and dogs in Turkey we have a great movie recommendation for you: “Stray”, by Elizabeth Lo. Lo, a documentalist from Hong-Kong, has already participated in the Sundance Film Festival for other movies. In “Stray” she portrays the life of Zeytin, a female stray dog living in Istanbul, taking a first hand look into the lives of many wild animals living in Turkey.
