Life on the Streets

The dog situation in Turkey is horrendous beyond belief. There are no laws preventing the abuse of animals. Animal lovers and volunteers do all they can do to save, help and re-home these abused creatures. Nonetheless, many stray dogs continue to get hurt or die on the streets due to people, cars, starvation, illness and a host of other issues. These dogs’ lives are more often than not miserable beyond imagination.

In recent years, with various canine fads coming into style, pet-shops have set up industrial-sized breeding facilities to produce large numbers of puppy breeds to meet the whims of the buyers. Sadly, older breeds, once their value has declined, are often dumped on the streets. And the cute puppies, often purchased impulsively, can outgrow their welcome: they become too large, or too rambunctious, or too time-consuming for their buyers. Tragically, the capricious owners then dump the dog onto the street or even abandon them along roadways or in forests.

Once abandoned, the dogs are left to face injuries and disease without aid. Weather conditions are extreme in Turkey, with hot, dry summers and freezing sub-zero winters. The vast majority of dogs cannot survive without some human support to provide food, water, and minimal shelter. In the forests, food sources are meager and during the arid months, there is no drinking water. Many dogs die from starvation and untreated injuries or illnesses. Hostile people sometimes attack the dogs and there are cases where they’ve been shot, poisoned, or even raped. When the dogs appear on roads searching for food and human contact, cars and trucks are a grave threat, and many animals are slaughtered.

In some cities and municipalities, officials place some of the street dogs in shelters. However, most remain strays, living on the streets. Some cities also round up dogs to take to vet clinics where they are spayed/neutered and given vaccines for rabies. A tag is then stapled to their ear and they are released back on the streets.

However, if there are complaints regarding the dogs in any neighborhood, then the city will often collect the dogs and dump them into the forests. There are also numerous accounts in social media describing city officials poisoning the dogs right on the streets, to the horror of witnesses.

In Turkey, the treatment of street dogs often depends on the quality of life in their neighborhoods. In areas where people are better educated and moderately prosperous, the local street dogs and cats are often treated as outdoor pets. However, in many poor and chaotic neighborhoods, the strays are ignored or worse.

Istanbul, for example, is an old city but its boundaries are still expanding. Zoning and planning are non-existent, and there is constant construction work. Forests in the way are chopped down and green spaces, now almost gone, are replaced with concrete buildings, such as apartments or even skyscrapers. This relentless growth leaves stray animals trapped with no exit.

And the dumping of dogs in streets, forests, and landfills continues at a rapid rate. When puppies are born in these bleak environments, they generally die in a few months. There are generous people, mainly volunteers, who organize aid efforts through social media.  The volunteers work together to feed and care for as many of these dogs as they can. However, these support efforts are never enough to provide food, water, medical care, and shelter for all the dogs.

In light of this dismal situation, we are trying to help save as many animals as possible. While some dogs are too feral or suspicious to bring into homes, many individuals are ideal candidates to return to homes as domestic pets. Some breeds, particularly the golden retrievers, are ill-suited to survive the harsh conditions in the streets and forests.

Our Movie (Click above to watch)

This is a documentary about the many, many hundreds of Turkish street dogs dumped into the forests outside Istanbul, and the efforts of volunteer groups to sustain and protect the dogs.

Like many countries, Turkey has been largely tolerant of ‘street dogs’. In recent years, however, some Istanbul municipalities have started removing and dumping the dogs in the forests. Many irresponsible pet owners and dog breeders abandon animals there as well.

Artist and animal rights activist Fey Rubeyi became deeply concerned over the fate of these abandoned dogs. On a visit to Istanbul in September 2014, she went out with a rescue group to document the lives of the dogs.

Fey, who was born and educated in Istanbul, shot the footage with a small Panasonic handycam and her iPhone. She now lives and works in California as a graphic artist.

The dogs have mainly been dumped in the Beykoz forest and Hayal Ormani (Dream Forest) on public owned property. In this terrain, the dogs cannot survive without human support to provide food, water, and shelter. Food sources are insufficient in the forests, and during the hot, dry months there is no drinking water. The dogs are sometimes harassed and even poisoned by hostile people. Cars and trucks are a grave threat to the dogs when they appear on roads searching for food and human contact.

Several dedicated groups of Turkish volunteers, primarily working from donations, have grown up to aid and support the dogs. Aside from providing food, medicine, water, and protection, they are sometimes able to find adoptive homes for a handful of the dogs.

Many of the dogs have frozen to death in the harsh Turkish winters, and the group ‘Grumpy Old Dog’ maintains an active dog house construction program to help keep the dogs alive in a severe environment.

The group works with the Beykoz Hayvan Rehabilitasyon Merkezi (Animal Rehabilitation Center) to help provide medical care for the legions of dogs.

The documentary narration is in English with Turkish dialogue.

The video was edited by Randy Graham in 2015.