Documentary: Ghosts In The City, Strays In Istanbul

No Comments | February 17th, 2007 | Trackback

Check out the trailer for Ghosts in the City, a short documentary film on stray dogs in Istanbul which will be aired in March. Produced by EHDKD, a full length documentary is also in the works. The narration here is in Turkish, but I’ve been assured there will be an English version of the film.

Briefly, Turkey is the first country in its region to have passed animal welfare laws which require government authorities to use the humane strategy of neuter and release to deal with the stray dog population. However, when selecting an organization to carry out the project, the Istanbul authorities designed the program in a way that non-profits, even those with expertise in the area, would not qualify to bid on it (the organization had to have carried out a “similar project” with a large budget in the last few years) and ended up giving the project to the lowest bidder: a pesticide company called BioSav. EHDKD believes that animals that have died in the care of BioSav, and as payment was made based on the removed ovaries and testicles, the pesticide company has no real incentive to ensure the animals are treated humanely while in its care or released in an appropriate area afterwards.

You can visit EHDKD’s Turkish Strays blog for updates, and come back to the Volunteer Logue as well. You can also download SHKD’s detailed report on the issue of strays in Istanbul and its proposal for a solution here.