Turks are accused of hunting, torturing, killing and sexually abusing 
'unclean' dogs

By Amberin Zaman, in Ankara

(Filed: 27/03/2006)





      Pro-islamic municipalities in Turkey are killing stray dogs, animal 
rights groups claim.

      Municipal workers are hunting, torturing and killing the animals by 
the hundreds, the campaigners say.

      The allegations surfaced when Burcu Isikalp, a young veterinary 
surgeon, went searching for seven strays she had been caring for near her 
home in the capital, Ankara. Witnesses told her that municipal workers had 
taken them away.

      She went to Ankara's largest refuse dump, Mamak, where she found one 
of the strays with hundreds of other dogs. "They were all dead, stacked in 
large pits," she said. "We also found 10 dead puppies in a bound plastic 
bag. There is a myth among pious Muslims that dogs are unclean."

      Animal rights campaigners who accompanied Miss Isikalp last week said 
that at least two of the dogs had been sexually abused.

      The mayor of Mamak, Gazi Sahin, of the ruling pro-Islamic Justice and 
Development Party, has denied responsibility.



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