Slaughter At Gebze Shelter
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 accusations levelled at Gebze Municipality
October 2024
Just two months after the amendments to animal welfare law 5199 were passed allowing euthanasia of stray animals in certain circumstances, a scandal hit the news.
A visitor to the shelter returned the following week & noticed that the animals he had seen just a few days earlier were not there.
Adoption rates in Turkey are poor as just 5% of the population accept dogs with most of that percentage choosing to purchase breed puppies. With this in mind how was it possible to adopt out such a large number in a short space of time?
Concerned, the visitor went looking for answers & did not like what they found.
In garbage containers they saw numerous black bags with dead dogs & cats inside.
One could say that these animals lost their lives to natural causes such as terminal illness or injuries beyond healing but that would not happen in this volume all at the same time. Trust me, we have experience in this field.
It was found that thirty dogs & fourteen cats were stuffed in to black bags & placed in the garbage containers
They had puncture wounds from needlesticks, some still had the needles in place & four animals were still alive, barely so but they were still breathing. Drug containers which had held the substance used to kill them were tossed in to the bags with the dogs also.
CHP Istanbul deputy Nimet Özdemir visited the shelter & confirmed what others had been relaying to the media.
She was very upset by what had happened here & vowed to address the Constitutional Court of Turkey in an effort to get the cruel law which had allowed the killing of these animals to take place.
Condemning the law she said “This is a cycle of crime, it must be stopped now.”
Credit https://www.duvarenglish.com/
Understandably people were very upset by this needless slaughter of innocent animals whose only crime was being born in Turkey. A country with a large stray dog population due largely to the lack of care from humans, who should have spayed & neutered & not tossed companion & working animals out on to the streets when the mood took them to do so.
People gathered outside the municipal shelter & protested peacefully but loudly. The animals in the shelter did not have voices which could be heard, somebody had to it for them.
Gebze Municipality issued a statement very promptly stating that they had taken urgent action.
They stated that dogs were already deceased when their teams collected them & the rest could not be saved due to health problems.
Following the incident, animal lovers concerned for the safety of the animals who remained in the shelter adopted those who remained, leaving the shelter empty.
Animal Rights Federation Haytap, who had been present at the scene following the discovery of the animals lodged a complaint with the public prosecutors office.
8th November
The following article was published by The People’s Liberation Party
“An autopsy was performed on 4 dogs and 3 cats among the dead animals at the Veterinary Control Central Research Institute affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry . The autopsy report was shared with the public yesterday, Thursday, November 7th.
The report stated that no injuries such as hitting, hitting, cutting tools or firearms were detected in the animals .
It was stated that there was severe fluid accumulation, edema and bleeding in the animals' lungs , and that other organs were normal . In other words, these animals were killed by suffocation.
After being given an overdose of anesthetic, they were placed in black garbage bags alive, without even waiting for the drug to take effect, as is clearly seen in the published camera footage. The animals died in agony, in pain and by suffocation”
Access the entire article here