Animal Rights Defenders Asked to Account for 1000s of Street Animals

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Human rights defenders held a demonstration against animal rights violations in front of the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) on Sunday (April 17). The defenders have asked how many of the 20,000 street dogs neutered in Kısırkaya were still alive.

The protesters gathered in front of the İBB have stated that projects such as the Kısırkaya shelter aimed at “pushing animals away from the city, isolating and extinguishing them” and the reports they had been receiving since the Kısırkaya shelter had been opened proved these statements.

In the joint declaration prepared by 76 organizations including NGOs and animal rights centers of the bars, the animal rights defenders have asked the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, how come the suburbans and the forests outside the province were full of dogs if their claims of having neutered and healed the dogs were indeed true, why there were thousands of street dogs in Pendik, Kurtköy and Gebze rurals, and why they had not been able to account for the animals they have collected despite several requests of animal rights defenders.

The activists have also urged the locals to look out for the animals living in their neighbourhoods and keep track of the practices of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Court had found Kısırkaya shelter against law

Animal rights research and Development Foundation had applied to İBB to cancel the Kısırkaya project as it was against the law and the municipality had rejected the request. The foundation consequently had filed a suit against the municipality on July 22, 2014.

In July 2015, Istanbul 6th Administrative Court had found the Municipality rejecting the request of the foundation to cancel the project against the law and decided that the construction of the shelter was clearly against the provisions of the law. (ÇT/DG)

* Photographs: Facebook.