GHOSTS IN THE CITY – THE STRAY DOGS OF TURKEY
Bilge Okay is interviewed by Claudette Vaughan for the Abolitionist

Ghosts in the City is a new documentary, it’s sensitive look at stray and homeless populations of dogs roaming the inner city of Istanbul, Turkey. Over the centuries numerous ways have been installed to rid the city of unwanted dogs – rounding up hundreds and leaving them on an island to starve to death has been one tried and failed method simply because of the inhumanity of it all. Friendship has not always been reciprocated to the dogs of Turkey as this excellent documentary shows. The continuous killing of stray animals is not compatible with a civilized standard of living – says the Qur’an. The indiscriminate shooting and poisoning of strays has never worked anywhere on the planet.

Ghosts of the City is a moving portrayal of how a small group of animal activists save the strays and homeless dogs interspersed with some of the problems activists face confronting outworn public attitudes. We interview Bilge Okay who was part of the production team on this excellent production.

Abolitionist: Having just watched the short documentary “Ghosts In The City” you helped produced Bilge, it was an extremely moving piece of work. What was involved in the making of the film?

The municipalities in Turkey have been poisoning stray animals for hundreds of years as a method to clean up the cities of strays. After the Animal Protection Law passed in 2004, nothing changed. Municipalities began to neuter strays and dump them in distant forests to die there of hunger and thirst. We decided that the main problem was to create awareness of this problem and to inform the public that the only solution we can in all good conscience carry out is neuter and return. That is how we decided to make the film “Ghosts of the City”.

How is man’s best friend treated in Turkey especially the stray population?

Unfortunately in Turkey there is no tradition of having dogs as companion animals. Only guard dogs and shepherd dogs are tolerated, and the former are held on a chain all of their lives. The latter, shepherd dogs, exist only in villages to guide sheep. Although street dogs have been inhabitants of cities for hundreds of years, they are still not tolerated. Stray dogs been poisoned, killed, tortured, and dumped in isolated forests and islands ever since time immortal. Most peoples’ perceptions today still believe that dogs are dangerous, wild, carry infectious diseases or are full of rabies etc.

Dumping neutered animals in forests so they will either tear each other to pieces or die of hunger. Is this is going on still Bilge?

Yes unfortunately this practice is currently carried out by most of the city municipalities.

What are the current methods of slaughtering stray animals in Turkey and who is responsible?

The current method of slaughtering is dumping them in forests and in isolated areas to let them die of hunger and thirst there. Poisoning is also a common practice for many municipalities.

In Ghosts of the City it is said Islam condemns all slaughter of all living creatures. Please tell us more.

There is a passage in the Koran that says, “All the beasts that roam the earth and all the birds that wing their flight are but communities like your own. We have left out nothing in the Book. They shall all be gathered before their Lord,” which means that all living things are God’s creatures with equal rights as human beings. There are also many hadiths (sayings of Prophet Mohammed) telling clearly not to torture animals. Still, living Islam has more reference to false hadiths and sayings and interprets religion as if human beings are the most important creature of God and all other beings are given to serve him. From this there is a common belief persisting that if an animal is not useful, it can be killed.

Why is it of paramount importance to get Neuter-Vaccinate-Return programs installed and happening in Turkey?

T-N-R is the only solution to the stray dog problem. There is estimated to be 100,000 stray dogs in Istanbul, a metropolitan city with a population of 15 million. You can only decrease the number of strays by putting them back into their territory after being neutered so that they will protect the area from fertile dogs entering. If this project is put into practice effectively the problem can be solved in 5 years time since the life of a stray dog is not more than 3-5 years.

In Ghosts of the City Jaipur’s ABC educational programs are mentioned as the solution. What kind of success have they achieved that you also seek for Turkish dogs?

In Jaipur a neuter and release project was applied and as a result the number of strays as well as rabies incidents were decreased considerably.

The WHO said the killing and indiscriminate shooting of dogs has never worked but Trap-Neuter-Return with patience has had tremendous success. What are your thoughts?

We agree. Dogs have been poisoned in Turkey for hundreds of years. The problem is still not solved. The number of dogs in an area depends on the carrying capacity of the area, that is the amount of food-garbage that the area has. When you kill an animal, the space emptied by the killing is soon occupied by a fertile animal who gives birth to nine more dogs. The siblings survive depending on the food in the area but the number doesn’t decrease.

What is a humans’ responsibility to homeless animals Bilge?

I believe that having occupied and destroyed their natural habitat, it is our absolute responsibility to provide for them a life without suffering. To be realistic, city life is full of danger for animals. I agree that there should be no stray animals in the inner parts of the cities. But the only humane and ethical way of doing this is “neuter and return”.

How can people reading this help you?

What is being done to animals in Turkey is not an issue that only concerns Turkish people but is an issue that concerns all animal lovers all around the world. They should help us stop this torture by protesting the current practice of dumping dogs in forests.

How do you envision working in harmony with the other inhabitants of the world, the animals?

I believe that the creation was designed so that all forms of it lived in harmony. But mankind have destroyed this harmony and ended the life of many species as our wild life shows. Global warming is a disaster caused by humans and it is destroying nature and many species. I am afraid it is too late to stop this process now. Humankind is destroying their own future.

What is wrong with the inaction of the Turkish authorities and why are municipalities so uninterested in the plight of stray animals?

Municipalities are concerned only with giving an immediate answer to the complaints coming in from the public. When someone calls a municipality asking for a stray in his street to be taken away immediately, the municipality does so, not being concerned that this is no solution to the problem. Soon the area is filled with new comers and the same practice is repeated over again.

What are some of your successes to date, Bilge?

We have neutered 7000 stray animals in the district where our organisation used to run a shelter. We have medically treated hundreds of dogs and we have rehomed hundreds of them. We have gone to court to stop a tender given to a pesticide firm by the Istanbul municipality for the neutering of strays. They killed many dogs during transportation and on the operation table and dumped those that survived in forests. The tender was cancelled but the municipality is doing the same practice this time by its own team. We went to court against a district municipality for dumping dogs in forests. This court cases continues. At present we do education programs at schools to raise awareness for strays.

What do you need to continue?

We need support to continue our PR campaigns and our legal fight. We will be happy if people from all over the world visited our web site: www.evsizhayvanlar.org and our blog: http://ehdkd.blogspot.com and please do contact us.

You can watch Ghosts Of The City here: http://ehdkd.blogspot.com

or if you would like an English version contact us here at The Abolitionist-Online and we will send one to you free of charge.