Istanbul Residents Still Standing Up For Street Dogs

The authorities in Istanbul are still bemused by the on-going protests against proposed legislation to deal with the Turkish capital’s stray dogs by moving them to ill-defined “habitats”.  The strength of positive feelings towards the street dogs which are generally cared for by the residents and considered part of the community has put the new laws on hold.

A good article in The Christian Science Monitor puts this story in historical, geographical and developmental perspective. It highlights how the round-up and dumping of street dogs from Istanbul on an uninhabited island where they all starved to death is still known as the “Great Dog Massacre of 1910” and how the event has become “embedded in the city’s folklore”.

There is a strong element of distrust in the authorities’ motives here and although there are anti-stray dog voices many Istanbul residents believe that the animals “have as much right to inhabit the streets as humans”.

One of the key parts to this story touched on in this article but not elsewhere as far as I have seen is people’s perception of progress and modernisation. To many, a modern city should be free of unowned dogs and to them it is time that Istanbul went down the same road as London and Paris did in the mid-1800s in permanently clearing away the street dogs as the popularity of pet dogs increased. But Istanbul sits between this largely western view and that still more prevalent in the east where community dogs are more widely (but not universally) accepted.

This struggle will continue and my fear is that the local residents may win this battle but the overwhelming tide of increasing pet dog ownership will win the war. Unfortunately, too many pet owners will not see the difference between their pets and the street dogs, and therefore allow their animals to run around freely, which will increase the frequency of dog bites, and also feel little guilt at eventually abandoning their dog, which will result in a burgeoning population of dogs on the streets. The calls for action against the strays and street dogs may then become too strong for the protesters to resist.

Learn more about the lives and issue of unowned dogs in my e-book ”A Stray View” available from Bangkok Books (readable as .pdf on any computer)