Ministry’s purebred Turkish dogs in high demand

BURSA

Around 200 individuals who wish to adopt special Turkish dog breeds raised by the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry in the northwestern province of Bursa are queued to wait for six months.

The project started in 1992 to breed Turkish shepherd dogs of the Kangal and Akbaş breeds at the General Directorate of Agricultural Enterprises (TİGEM) facility in Bursa's Karacabey district, and it continues to this day.

The 200 Turkish shepherd dogs raised every year are housed separately as male and female in a total of 150 sections, 100 of which are indoors and 50 of which are outdoors.

The dogs are registered with pedigree certificates and genealogical systems to prevent close kinship and are put up for sale from the age of 2.5 months when they are no longer breastfed.

While the dogs are not sold to foreigners to protect the domesticity of the breed, Turkish herd owners and animal lovers queue up months in advance to own these purebreds.

Those who want to buy puppies or adult dogs, whose prices range between 9,000 to 11,000 Turkish Liras excluding VAT, have to wait for at least six months.

Currently, 200 people are waiting in line to buy Turkish dog breeds from the facility.

Stating that Kangals are mostly preferred as shepherd dogs and Akbaş for security purposes, Veterinarian Sümeyye Tanoba, the head of the breeding unit, pointed out that the dogs are not trained in their facility.

“We are also especially careful not to mate individuals from the same parents in order to prevent blood affinity, and we have a tracking system for this. In this way, we prevent genetic problems,” she added.