Turkish authorities are reportedly killing stray dogs and dumping their bodies into landfills. Graphic photos and videos showing the bodies of the dogs have been circulating online since the end of November. Animal rights organizations have reported that city officials are responsible for this heartbreaking cruelty.

Source: Reuters/YouTube

Unfortunately, the abuse of stray dogs is common, and there is an estimated stray dog population of over 10 million. Strays are most often killed in rural areas where people are more conservative and are not used to pets.

In 2021, after reported that several children had been killed by stray dogs, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told city governments to take care of the “dangerous” stray dogs and to place them in dedicated facilities.

Tahammül sınırınız nedir? #Konyadakatliamvar #MamakdaKatliamVar pic.twitter.com/SsJJHBorwr

— Ayşe Tüylüoğlu (@ttttayse) November 26, 2022

A video posted on Twitter last month shows city officials from Mamak capturing stray dogs and loading them into a car. While animal protection laws in the country say that city governments should take stray dogs, treat them and vaccinate them, then let them back on the street, it seems that what is happening is far from that.

Burası Kars'ın çöplüğü, dün buraya geldik ve burada çöpe atılan köpek yoktu ve şimdi belediye aracının kulaklarında küpe olan köpekleri burada çöpe attığını gördük. Bu durmalı. #karstakatliamvar pic.twitter.com/EdfCUNqwPH

— devran naz (@devnazofficial) December 12, 2022

One video shows a man beating a dog with a shovel in an animal shelter in Konya. Other videos by an Animal rights organization show the bodies of stray dogs dumped in a city landfill. Sometimes these poor animals are killed simply because people think they are not clean.

This is so heartbreaking and not the way to solve the problem of stray dogs in the streets.

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• Generous Turkish Sisters Feed Hundreds of Stray Dogs Affected by Coronavirus Everyday
• Community Officers Beat Stray Dogs to Death for Fear of Coronavirus

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