Haytap - Animal Rights Federation in Turkey

22/09/2024

Hello everyone from Haytap Retired Animals Sanctuary 🌺

21/09/2024

Even if you have forgotten, we are taking care of the lives of fire victims.
Our lives saved in the Diyarbakır-Mardin fires continue to enjoy their retirement at the HAYTAP Retirement Animals Sanctuary in Osmaniye.

20/09/2024

20/09/2024

There is comfort, no torture!

Haytap Retired Animals Sanctuary awareness work…

19/09/2024

HAYTAP SUPPORTS BEYKOZ SHELTER FOR 39 KENNELS FOR OUR BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS.

We paid 280 thousand liras for 39 kennels. The benefits of these kennels will be better understood during the harsh winter days.

Since all municipalities in the country are in great debt, unfortunately, helping animal friends comes last.

We will continue to provide this support to places where we can see that the places we help are used appropriately.

As long as there is no public-NGO cooperation, it is not possible for anyone to shoulder this burden alone. Let 39 kennels be a warm home for our animal friends in the Beykoz region.

17/09/2024

You bred, you sold, you abandoned. At least don’t make it hard for them to live…

17/09/2024

Mancs: Meaning; claw…

Mancs, who came from Miskolc, Hungary with the Spider Rescue team, had pulled four-year-old ‘Hatıra’ out of the rubble 82 hours after the August 17 earthquake.

August 17, 1999. İzmit Bekirpaşa Town... They had Mancs smell the little boy's quilt. Mancs was excitedly pointing to her location, wagging his tail, and scratching. As a result of the team's work, it was determined that the little girl was still alive. However, she was stuck in a place that was hard to reach. The rescue efforts were prolonged. While the efforts continued, Mancs carried water to the girl through a narrow passage so that she could survive. Every time he emerged from the rubble, he would wag his tail, letting them know that she was alive. The Hungarian rescue team and their dog, Mancs, managed to pull four-year-old ‘Hatıra’ out of the rubble alive after 82 hours.

This poor animal, who saved hundreds of people in different parts of the world, started life as an ownerless dog with a crippled hind leg.

When he died in 2006, this statue was erected in Hungary in his memory. From time to time, thanks are presented to that homeless, crippled dog in the same way with flowers.

Just as no one knew about Haciko before Richard Gere made him famous, no one knows about Bamse in Norway or the Hungarian Mancs in our country. Because the questioning and emotionality of a mass whose research and reading culture is extremely limited even in the history of animal rights, who are moreover instrumental in all kinds of absurd tweets and Facebook articles with their ignorant audacity, who can attack even without a document, evidence or court order, who cannot even go beyond being pet lovers, cannot be more than Middle Eastern arabesque.

Mancs, Bamse, Haciko gained the respect they deserved in their countries even more after they died. But their statues were erected while they were still alive. The living ones are already in high demand.

The same goes for ours whose statues we await in Taksim, Alsancak, İzmit and Kızılay squares.

As a monument to our disloyalty and ignorance..

Ahmet Kemal Senpolat
Haytap President
{ Don Quixote's Corner}

16/09/2024

Here’s What’s Been Happening To Turkey’s Stray Dogs Since The ‘Massacre’ Law Passed

It’s been nearly a month since Turkey passed the ‘massacre’ law that many feared would lead to a mass culling of the country’s beloved street dogs – here’s what’s been happening since

Since the passing of new Turkish legislation – deemed as the ‘massacre law’ by activists – at the end of July, pictures and videos have been shared on social media revealing the scale of abuse towards stray dogs; and it’s exactly what activists warned of when the bill was being debated.

The new law, introduced by President Tayyip Erdoğan in response to concerns about the estimated four million stray dogs in the country, mandates that municipalities will have to collect stray dogs and house them in government-run shelters where they would be neutered and spayed. Dogs who are terminally ill, pose a health risk to humans, or are aggressive will be euthanised under the law.

When the legislation passed at the end of July, activists feared that dogs would be killed as shelters wouldn’t be able to house the overwhelmingly large number of dogs on the streets.

“The new law sends a clear message to street dogs and to those who look after them,” a post from the charity Animal Friends of Turkey reads. “You’re on your own, the government doesn’t care about you.”

It continues, saying the law is “essentially a free pass for anyone wanting to create problems for street dogs”.

Now, only a month after the law’s passing, there are images and videos swirling around on social media of mistreated dogs and mass graves preparing for their impending deaths. Photojournalist Tunahan Turhan has been documenting the grim reality of what is happening on the country, as well as the impact on animal rights activists and locals on Instagram.

Are the reports true?
“Most of it is true,” Ahmet Kemal Senpolat, a lawyer and president of Animal Rights Federation in Turkey (HAYTAP), says about the posts circulating on social media. “We keep receiving news of ill treatment or killing from different parts of the country.”

Municipalities, according to Ahmet, are now “fearless” and “bare faced” because of the law.

“They are doing anything they can do to get rid of the surplus of dogs,” he says. “They are and will be committing more violence against dogs under cover of collecting street animals for public health and safety. Their cruel actions are varied: picking up animals from their own area to throw them in the middle of nowhere, poisoning them after collecting, squeezing the dogs into tiny holes called shelters, and killing them inside or outside those shelters.”

Lisanne Hilley, a 34-year-old activist living in Aydın, Turkey who runs Melez, a private shelter for more than 70 dogs and partners with Animal Friends of Turkey, says she is worried about what is happening in areas where there aren’t animal lovers.

“We only know what is going on in areas where there are large and strong enough groups of animal rights activists to diligently observe what the municipalities and shelters are doing,” she says. “We are in the dark about what is happening in areas where there aren’t people to track what the authorities are doing.”

She has been told of mass graves found in different parts of Turkey, ready for a surplus of dogs. Even before the new law, she suspects these mass graves were being made use of as the poor conditions of Turkey’s shelters meant that dogs were dying daily in shelters of starvation, illness or injury. She expects they will be filled faster now.

“New dogs are definitely being killed, but to what extent this is more than how things were before is impossible to verify,” she says. “Many of the bodies of the dogs found in the mass graves appear to show signs of brutal violence, but again, as neither the shelters nor the municipalities are under any obligation to truthfully report what they are doing, all we can do is speculate what horrors those dogs went through.”

Lisanne confidently says that cases of animal abuse on the streets have increased.

“For the portion of the population who doesn’t like dogs, the new law is being seen as a free pass to do whatever they like to strays,” she says. She believes that cases of mass poisoning of street dogs by citizens have increased.

Ahmet worries all of this is simply for political purposes – that’s it’s being done “just to win the locals’ approval for less strays.”

“It’s a sign of improved public health and smaller burdens on the public budget,” he continues. “They do not care about their methods for the sake of pleasing some citizens. No matter how unjust or inhumane they are, they can come clean with one blurry justification: the dogs were dangerous.”

How do locals and tourists feel?

Just as there was a split of opinion when the law was being debated, the public is split in the aftermath of its passing.

“On one side, there is the majority of the public which opposes the massacre law,” Ahmet says. “On the other side, there is a heterogenous group of animal massacre fans.”

Those who oppose the law are frustrated and anxious, desperately trying their best to keep dogs alive and healthy.

“Private shelters and animal lovers who don’t have a shelter are desperately trying to look for ways to keep their beloved strays safe,” Lisanne says. “There have been some heartwarming stories of owners of unused plots of land offering the land up for free for anyone who wants to build a safe shelter for street dogs there.

Ahmet “likes to see” the protest, but says he “can’t see much influence of it on the government’s actions”.

Even so, he hopes they continue.

Is there an appeal?

On 15 August, Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) applied to the Constitutional Court on Thursday to annul the law.

“We call on the Constitutional Court to cancel all articles of the related law and prevent the inhumane treatment of innocent lives,” senior lawmaker Gokhan Gunaydin said when the appeal was made.

Ahmet says the appeal argues the new law is “against the basic right to life for certain species”.

The appeal also raises a problem regarding the confusion about what can be done to the animals and by whom.

“Although we believe these two arguments are strong enough to cancel the legislation, we are not optimistic about the result since the overall Turkish judiciary system is not functioning properly,” he says.

Is there anything that people can do?
While Ahmet continues to work with colleagues to appeal the law, he says there is plenty that people supporting the rights of animals can do, including starting neuter and release campaigns. He thinks if it is shown to be an effective means of controlling the stray dog population, the government might be persuaded to use it.

He also asks for animal lovers to continue visiting government-run shelters in Turkey.

“The staff can then notice the public eye on them,” he says. “It may also show the government that animals are not ownerless.”

Lisanne says people in private shelters are “overwhelmed” responding to the cries for help for dogs who need saving from government-run shelters. She’d love to see more adoptions and support.

What can I do?

To join in the fight you can share images and videos on social media – especially those with info written in languages other than Turkish – to help generate a global awareness.

There is also a petition to sign (a translated version exists here) that calls for an urgent sterilisation campaign and the banning of pet sales instead of rounding up and euthanising them, and another petition calling on the Turkish government to reverse the bill.

If you’re able to, you can also donate money to charities such as Animal Friends of Turkey or .

by Lauren Crosby Medlicott
20 August 2024

15/09/2024

We watched a movie with our dear friends at the movie night we held at Haytap Retired Animals Sanctuary... We are waiting for you at Bursa Retired Animals Sanctuary 🫏🐄

14/09/2024

Our feed worth 32 thousand TL that we purchased for our retirees has arrived at Haytap Bursa Retirement Animals Sanctuary ☀

We are doing our best to ensure that our dear friends who have been saved from various torments live their retirement lives in the most comfortable way…

Thanks to you…

13/09/2024

As the Haytap team, we continue the neutering operations we started in Zonguldak. We are especially focusing on our friends in rural areas. We also take our friends with diseases such as scabies and fungus and provide them with the necessary treatments.

11/09/2024

Haytap on Anthora Magazine;

As she sifts through a pile of photos, stopping at each one with thought, Palo Alto High School junior Asya Buyukcangaz pulls out a photo of an injured cow that got infected from a concentrated animal feeding lot. She recalls her experience caring for Nazar the cow at an animal sanctuary in Turkey.

“Nazar escaped from a slaughterhouse and swam in the Mediterranean ocean for 14 miles,” Buyucangaz said. “HAYTAP brought [in] the animal and we took care of it in the retired animal farm.”

Buyukcangaz is just one of many with a love for animals. But her passion extends beyond caring for animals — she is a vocal advocate for animal rights.

Growing up in her mother’s veterinary hospital in rural Turkey, Buyukcangaz was surrounded by animals in need, each with a different story.

For more;

https://anthromagazine.org/rising-up-for-animal-rights/

09/09/2024

Our retirees hosted their guests at Bursa Haytap Retired Animals Sanctuary.

Hundreds of people visit the animals we save every month, and their perspective on animals changes. Haytap's Retired Animals Sancturies serve as both a rescue center and an education center.

If you want to spend a happy and peaceful day with your loved ones, you are invited to Haytap Retired Animals Sanctuaries! 🌿🏡

09/09/2024

Turkey’s plan to remove stray dogs is inhumane. There’s a better way.
We don’t need to pit dogs against humans.

For many in the United States, the idea of a dog without an owner and on the streets invokes a sense of sadness and neglect.

But that’s not the case everywhere. In some countries, stray dogs are an everyday part of life. They roam streets and towns and live alongside their human neighbors, who leave out food and water for their furry friends. But even in places where stray dogs are common, a tension can still exist between these ownerless dogs and humans. Dog bites can lead to illnesses, like rabies, and can cause severe injury or death. Life on the streets isn’t necessarily ideal for these animals either: stray dogs can be at risk for hunger, untreated injuries, and abuse from humans.

In Turkey, where an estimated 4 million stray dogs live, this conflict has risen all the way to the highest level of government. Last month, lawmakers passed legislation that would require municipalities to round up the millions of stray dogs and place them in shelters, as well as a mandate to euthanize animals that are sick or pose a risk to humans. The policy caused a lot of outrage from animal welfare advocates and the main opposition political party, who say the law will allow for these dogs to be killed indiscriminately and call it a “massacre law.”

“I think it’s really a step back in progressive ways of thinking about healthy cities, progressive cities, managing dogs in a humane way,” said Katherine P***k, the vice president of companion animals and engagement at Humane Society International (HSI), about the new law. “And that’s what people want, both internationally and within Turkey.”

Managing the stray dog population and the problems that arise from it shouldn’t require a death sentence for these animals, researchers and activists argue. Ultimately, stray dogs are the products of humans. Their sustained growth stems from human practices, like people abandoning their dogs, neglecting to spay or neuter them, feeding strays, and improper waste management.

Multiple truths can exist at once: stray dogs can cause harm to humans, human decisions are largely the reason for stray dogs’ existence and their sizable growth, and stray dogs are prone to being villainized for simply being dogs without a human owner. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to reconcile these realities and create workable solutions. Countries like India and Bhutan can serve as models for what works, what doesn’t, and what challenges still exist for creating a better, safer dynamic between dogs and humans.

What the law on stray dogs in Turkey says
In 2004, Turkey passed their Animal Protection Law, which gave all animals — domesticated or ownerless — the right to protection and a comfortable life. It was a win for animal lovers everywhere, and solidified Turkey’s deep history of living side by side with street dogs and cats, both of which have been the stars of documentaries that examine their free-roaming life and the relationship they share with humans. The law also included provisions on neutering and vaccinating stray animals before returning them to where they were found, effectively allowing stray dogs and cats to live their lives freely without uncontrolled reproduction.

However, implementing the sterilization and vaccination regulations has been spotty, say Turkish animal welfare organizations like Haytap. Animal rights groups say that it’s this inconsistent fulfillment from local governments that has led to a growth in the number of stray dogs.

Now, the law has taken a turn against the dogs. After President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on attacks and accidents caused by free-roaming dogs late last year, lawmakers drafted legislation to amend the Animal Protection Law and get strays off the streets. An initial proposal called for any stray animal to be euthanized if they weren’t adopted after 30 days of being in a shelter. After pushback, the final amended version passed at the end of July. It mandated that stray animals be put into shelters, sterilized and vaccinated, and kept there until they’re adopted — though euthanasia is still required for sick or aggressive dogs.

But the country doesn’t have enough animal shelters to house millions of strays. Estimates say there’s room for around 100,000 animals across a little over 300 shelters. And according to animal welfare advocates, these shelters don’t currently have enough resources to provide a safe and healthy space for strays, let alone the space for the millions of dogs on the streets.

“These are government pounds that have very, very limited resources,” P***k told Vox. “Shelters are incredibly expensive to run if you want to provide good quality welfare.”

To address this concern, the new law also mandates that municipalities use a small portion of their budgets to build and improve animal shelters by 2028. However, critics are still worried that it will just be easier to cull these dogs rather than invest the money and time in the shelters — and reports have already come out about pits of dead dogs near animal pounds.

The amended Animal Protection Law might be more than just about stray dogs; some say it could be about politics and power, too. It’s a potential measure to continue wrangling power from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main opposition political party, after the Justice and Development Party — President Erdogan’s party — faced major losses in March. The law also includes fines and prison time for mayors who don’t enforce the impounding of stray dogs, which the CHP has repeatedly stated it wouldn’t do.

Last week, the CHP applied to annul the law to the country’s Constitutional Court, which will decide if the law stays or is thrown out. Regardless, the fierce debate on what to do about stray dogs is ongoing.

09/09/2024

Today is meat-free monday 🌺

07/09/2024

The treatments of our friends who were affected by the Izmir fire and whom we have taken under protection are continuing. They are in very good condition compared to when they were first found. When our treatments are completed, we are looking for their families who will make them forget these bad days they have experienced. One of our friends has a visual impairment.

For contact: 0534 697 47 83 Selen Hanım, Izmir