Activists protest negligence in death of stray dogs

Yavuz Kuşdemir - UŞAK - Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

A group of animal rights activists protested alleged municipal negligence in the case of 300 missing stray dogs in the Aegean province of Uşak, after reports revealed around 50 of the dogs had died in a truck on their way to neighboring Denizli province.

Uşak Association for the Protection of Street Animals head Nebahat Avcu organized a protest in front of the Uşak Municipality building on Aug. 6, accusing municipal officials of transporting stray dogs out of the city in an inappropriate and harmful way. 

Uşak Nature Protection and National Parks branch head Hüseyin Tekin said a detailed investigation has been launched into the incident. Uşak municipal officials however said none of the dogs in their animal shelter were transferred recently.

The protests came after around 50 dogs were found suffocated to death after being stuffed into a truck with 250 other stray dogs in the Çivril district of Denizli province on Aug. 5. 

“Around 300 dogs were found in truck haulage yesterday morning around 4:00 a.m. in Çivril. Unfortunately 50 of those dogs were found to be dead. While taking the dead dogs off the truck to bury them, authorities permitted the same truck driver to leave with the half-alive dogs in its truck bed. Despite all our efforts to bring back those dogs, neither the dogs nor the truck were found,” said Avcu. 

 “When we asked the personnel working at the animal shelter about what happened to the dogs they told us they had nothing to do with this incident,” Avcu said.

“We immediately took action and went to the Uşak Office of Nature Conservation and National Parks and filed a complaint against the treatment of these animals,” stated Avcu.

The truck driver, identified as O.S., stated in his testimony, “I work for a transport company, which works with the Uşak Municipality. I was told to drop the dogs off in Çivril near an animal shelter.” Çivril Municipality officials allowed the driver to leave with the living dogs as they buried the dead dogs at the scene. 

Denizli Chamber of Veterinary Surgeons head Türkay Berberoğlu said if monkeys or crocodiles were found in the truck, the authorities wouldn’t have allowed the truck driver to leave. “Because people don’t care about stray dogs they allowed the truck to leave,” said Berberoğlu.