The Bilecik Dog Killing Scandal
On November 22, 2023, the quiet forests of Bilecik’s Vezirhan district became the site of an unspeakable atrocity.
Dozens of dogs—helpless, homeless, and entrusted to the care of a municipal shelter—were slaughtered and dumped like garbage along a forest road.
What began as a gruesome discovery by local citizens has since spiralled into a scandal involving animal cruelty, deceit, and an alleged cover-up.
The Discovery: A Forest of Death
Residents who stumbled upon the horrific scene alerted the authorities immediately. Strewn across the roadside were the lifeless bodies of numerous dogs, some appearing to have been recently killed.
The gruesome images shared on social media triggered a wave of public outrage. Animal rights activists, local citizens, and organisations across Turkey demanded justice and transparency.
Gendarmerie teams were deployed under the direction of the public prosecutor to begin a criminal investigation.
The Denial: “Our Municipality Has Nothing to Do With This”
Amid growing pressure and media attention, Bilecik Mayor Melek Mızrak Subaşı appeared before cameras, stating unequivocally that Bilecik Municipality had no involvement in the incident. She further suggested the dogs had been dumped within the boundaries of the neighbouring Vezirhan Municipality—effectively pointing the finger elsewhere.
The Investigation: A Trail of Evidence
Law enforcement teams, operating under prosecutorial orders, launched an intensive investigation. Surveillance footage, vehicle tracking, and plate recognition systems were reviewed. What they uncovered was deeply troubling: the dogs had been transported in a vehicle registered to the Bilecik Municipality.
More shocking still was what they didn’t find—key surveillance footage from the municipal shelter, which could have shown how the dogs were selected, transported, and killed, was missing.
The Cover-Up: Erasing the Truth
Through official correspondence obtained during the investigation, it was revealed that Mayor Subaşı herself had ordered the deletion of video footage from the shelter’s surveillance system on the very day of the massacre. Hard drives were removed, their contents erased, and the drives were returned to the mayor’s office—without ever being submitted to the police or public prosecutor.
One document reads:
“I hereby inform you that the hard disks and DVDs that were delivered to you after being removed and the information on them erased upon your instructions were not delivered to the law enforcement units or the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and that the hard disks and DVDs must be returned within 3 business days.”
An internal municipal report confirmed the damning timeline:
“Upon the instruction of the Mayor’s Office, the images from the recording device disks removed from the animal shelter and replaced with new ones, dated 22.11.2023, were transferred to DVD media, the content of the existing hard disks were erased and cleaned and delivered to the Mayor’s Office together with the DVDs.”
This deliberate erasure of evidence is more than an administrative decision—it potentially constitutes obstruction of justice. In any lawful investigation, such tampering would raise red flags. In the context of a mass killing of sentient beings, it’s nothing short of criminal.
The Arrests: Who Will Be Held Accountable?
So far, four individuals have been detained, including the shelter’s veterinarian. But questions loom large:
Who ordered the killings?
Who else was complicit?
Why were the dogs slaughtered—was it for convenience, cost-cutting, or to meet unspoken population control quotas?
A National Reckoning
The Bilecik dog massacre is not an isolated case—it is symptomatic of a larger problem in Turkey and beyond: how societies value (or devalue) the lives of animals in their care.
When shelters become slaughterhouses and officials hide evidence rather than seek justice, we must confront an uncomfortable truth—these animals are not just being failed, they are being betrayed.
Mayor Subaşı must be held fully accountable if the allegations are confirmed.
Transparency must be restored. And systemic reforms must follow to ensure that municipal shelters never again become sites of silent suffering and mass death.
A Call to Action
If this story outrages you—and it should—don’t let it fade from public view.
Follow us as we strive to give a balanced, well measured account of animal welfare challenges in Turkey
Support our efforts to ignite positive change
Stand with us as we work tirelessly to expose the truth and seek a better future for the voiceless
And above all, remember the lives lost in that Bilecik forest. They mattered.
Justice for them begins with the truth—and it ends with change.