A recent spate of stray dog attacks across Turkey further raises concerns for the growing sector of motorcycle couriers, who claim they are more prone to the danger of attacks than others.
Couriers say they face twice as much danger from stray dogs, who suddenly show up on the street and chase them away, endangering their driving safety and when they deliver on foot, they face direct attacks by feral dogs.
The situation is dire, as the fate of a 10-year-old girl indicates. M.M.P. was running away from a pack of aggressive stray dogs in the southern Turkish city of Antalya when she jumped into a busy street and was hit by a truck earlier this month. The girl succumbed to her wounds on Monday and although indirectly, she was the first fatal victim of a series of attacks that have left several victims severely injured.
Couriers call for measures to drive the stray dogs away from central, residential areas of cities and say they are ready to financially support any such project for the care of dogs in rural areas rather than urban settings.
Murat Tomris, head of the Federation of Couriers, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Tuesday that they would support any step that will “preserve the lives of couriers and dogs.” “Dogs are apparently disturbed by the noise of motorcycles, and they often bark and adopt an aggressive stance against couriers. We are not their enemies and love them very much, but their attacks may sometimes be fatal. Dogs should be in forested areas or other places far from neighborhoods,” he said. Tomris highlighted that it would be good for their safety as well. “Every day, we come across a dog or cat crushed to death by cars. It is unfortunate. People do not adopt these animals and they are not cared for in proper shelters,” he said.
Tomris noted that couriers, unlike drivers of other vehicles, have difficulty maintaining the balance of their vehicles and a sudden attack or the barking of aggressive dogs has caused accidents. “Dogs instinctively defend their own turf when they sense a stranger. Some couriers, while on foot, delivering the packages, get so accustomed that they carry meat and bones with them in some places with a high number of dogs so they can distract the dogs,” he said.
Tolga Bektaş, deputy chair of the Federation of Couriers, said stray dogs are particularly ubiquitous in back alleys and roads. “Almost all couriers face this problem. Last week, for instance, a colleague ran into a pedestrian when he steered away in panic, with a dog barking and jumping on him, and the pedestrian was injured.”
