As stray dogs involved in attacks continue to raise concern, a municipality in Turkey is setting an example for others for the rehabilitation of dogs and keeping them off the streets. The Municipality of Konya in the Anatolian heartland now pays a monthly allowance to people who adopted dogs from its shelters.
The municipality’s project, which started five years ago, came up in the speeches of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who urged municipalities to tackle the stray dog problem in a way that did not hurt animals or expose citizens to potential attacks by feral dogs. The “Friends of Animals” project saw the adoption of some 6,744 stray animals in the past five years.
Animals picked from the streets are taken to a sprawling complex consisting of animal shelters, veterinary clinics and rehabilitation areas. After they are rehabilitated here, animals are put up for adoption. Every month, the municipality pays TL 250 ($15) to people adopting dogs. The payment is limited to one dog in the city, while households in rural parts of Konya are allowed to adopt as many as three dogs to benefit from the dog care aid. Each animal is registered and tagged and municipality crews visit the families who adopted dogs regularly to check on them.
Amid public outcry due to the spate of stray dog attacks, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said last month that Turkey may “pay a serious price” without the sterilization of dogs and other measures. The president said at an event on May 19 that the local municipalities should do more to shelter stray animals and criticized Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) on the issue. “Other municipalities like Konya and the Beykoz district in Istanbul have superb shelters. Istanbul municipality should do the same,” he said.
The president, a dog owner himself, said sterilization was “essential” to address the problem. “Turkey can pay a serious price if it does not curb the unlimited proliferation of stray animals,” he said. The president noted that he instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to take necessary steps, including joint efforts with municipalities for sterilization and other measures. “Certainly, we are concerned about (potential) attacks on our children. No parents can accept it, they cannot ignore it out of their love for animals. We need to be realistic. We have to take protective steps,” he said.
