NATO leaders are coming to Ankara & municipalities have been instructed to collect free-roaming dogs from roads, airports, hotels and other locations connected to the summit.
Animal welfare organisations have long argued that street dogs should be treated as living beings deserving of protection and respect, not as an embarrassment to be hidden when influential visitors arrive. Yet the reports emerging from Ankara risk creating exactly that impression. The animals are not being discussed because of their welfare needs, but because of where they are located and who might see them.
Street dogs are not rubbish to be cleared away before guests arrive. They are not street furniture that can be relocated for the convenience of a political event. They are living animals whose lives matter regardless of whether international delegations happen to be passing through the area.
What makes these reports particularly disturbing is the message they send. The presence of free-roaming dogs appears to have become a greater concern precisely because the world’s attention is turning towards Ankara. Instead of prompting a discussion about long-term solutions, welfare standards or responsible population management, the focus appears to be on removing the animals from highly visible locations before the summit begins.
Animal welfare advocates fear that this risks treating the dogs as an image problem rather than a welfare responsibility.
If dogs are being removed from areas connected to the summit, the public deserves complete transparency about where they are going, how they will be cared for and what safeguards are in place to protect their welfare. These are not unreasonable questions. They are the minimum level of accountability that should accompany any operation involving living animals.
The NATO Summit will last only a matter of days. The decisions taken in preparation for it may have consequences that last far longer. Long after the motorcades have departed and the delegates have returned home, the question will remain whether Ankara’s street dogs were treated as living beings deserving of protection and respect or simply as something that needed to be removed from sight before the world’s cameras arrived.