Live Dogs Thrown In To Burial Pit By Erzincan Municipality
In the past ten months, numerous instances of cruelty towards dogs have come to light, following the enactment of the massacre law.
This wave of suffering prompted a plea for the law's repeal to the constitutional court in Ankara.
Unfortunately, the court dismissed the request, leaving many concerned about the ongoing plight of these animals.
In this short blog I look at the damning evidence of animal cruelty at Erzincan Municipality
February 3rd 2025
Leaked footage of a municipal truck disposing of deceased dogs in a dump burial pit are leaked on social media.
At first glance there is nothing unusual about the activity. Sadly dogs pass away on the streets & in shelters from time to time due to old age, disease, injury & traffic accidents.
However, this time something was very wrong.
As deceased dogs were tipped in to the pit one dog missed the pit (its not clear if the operative missed the pit or realised the dog was alive) & it ran away while a second operative looked on.
In another clip a dog is seen escaping the pit & darting off in another direction.
The municipality was aware of this situation & immediately denied allegations of any wrong doing. They said that the activity recorded was not that of their municipality.
Ben Erdal Gezeroğlu, a worker at the Erzincan garbage treatment plant was working at an elevated part of the facility & heard the dogs. Alerted to them he began to film what he saw.
He said he was sacked for doing so.
February 7th 2025
Further video footage appeared of dogs being dragged & thrown unceremoniously in to a vehicle with claims that dogs were being killed in the shelter.
Its important to remember that dogs do sadly pass away in any kennel environment from disease & in my opinion it is not possible to ascertain exactly what is going on here.
However, I will say that no shelter worker I know would treat any deceased animal with such disregard & irreverence.
Sözcü tv published more footage from the shelter believed to have been recorded on January 29, 2025
In this video it is claimed that 15 - 20 animals are deceased.
It is impossible to say how these animals died from this video, but as someone who has experience of the sheltering of stray animals there does seem to be a problem here.
The death rate is high.
And why would live animals be jumping out of trucks with the deceased?
We know the various methods used to kill dogs in shelters. One is an overdose of narcotics. It is possible that not all dogs were killed by this overdose & merely knocked out only to recover. As dreadful as that sounds it has happened many times before resulting in dogs either being buried alive or suffocating in plastic bags.
13th February 2025
Erzincan Municipality, who had previously denied any involvement in these events made a statement to the public several days later in which they announced the suspension of staff pending investigation.