Turkey’s stray dogs killed in droves after passage of Erdogan-backed law

The call from the animal rights activist came last Thursday. It was urgent. A huge pit full of canine corpses had been found near the animal shelter in Ankara’s Altindag district, which is run by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Burcu Yagci, a lawyer from the Ankara Bar Association’s animal rights department, rushed to the scene with fellow lawyers and veterinarians. 

“The sight and the stench were unbearable,” Yagci recalled. There was a pile of dogs that had been recently killed. “Blood was pouring out of their eyes, their mouths and their nostrils. They were so bloated their intestines had burst out of their bodies,” Yagci told Al-Monitor. The puppies had been stuffed into bags. Their bodies had melted from the lethal solution that the creatures had likely been injected with. This had probably caused the internal organs of the older animals to rupture, hence the bleeding, according to veterinarians who examined their remains.

That wasn’t all. Some 20 meters (some 65 feet) away from the “death pit,” a concrete hut with small windows emitted a cacophony of howls and whimpers. Yagci walked over. Its heavy metal door was locked. She found a ladder, stood it against one of the open windows and climbed in. Sure enough, as she suspected, there were 10 dogs, all chained to a wall. They had neither food nor water.

“The poor things started nuzzling me, licking my hands,” Yagci said. “They must all be dead by now.”