Why Can't the Stray Dog Problem Be Discussed?

As the average level of knowledge decreases in our country, the culture of social discussion is also negatively affected. Attitudes are determined based on belief on issues about which we have no knowledge. Determined attitudes create affiliations through various symbols. Belongings force people to take sides. The ordeal of having to gain knowledge in order to have an idea cannot go beyond being seen as an unnecessary choice for people who are used to consuming easily. Worse, the words of those in the know are lost in the aimless and irrational cries that create a cacophony between the poles. People experience the adrenaline-filled pleasure of fruitless shouting by insulting each other, exceeding the boundaries of respect and love. In this environment of chaos, it becomes almost impossible to reveal what is really going on. In this case, the problems, far from being solved, get worse and become chronic. In this article I will try to explain why such a question cannot be discussed.

Our world is home to a wide variety of living species. However, there is a living species on this 4.5 billion-year-old blue planet that believes that it is the only one living in the universe, that it has the right to consume more with its mind than other living creatures in the world, and that other living creatures were created to make it happy. Not only does he believe it, he assumes that this sick thought gives him many rights and claims with selfish brutality that he is superior to all living things. However, apart from its almost 12 thousand year history, it is known that it lives a life that is not much different from other living things. Moreover, every period of these 12 thousand years is full of wars in which they committed barbaric massacres against each other. It is known that, especially in the approximately 250-year period following the industrial revolution and extending to the present day, it began to cause great harm to the world with the weapons it developed, the culture of life and the settlements it created. It is also rumored that he started to wear a mask called civilization from his birth until his death in order to prevent them from harming each other in the big cities where they lived together. City life involves a process in which a person forgets or is consciously made to forget where he comes from.

While humans build a sheltered life for themselves, their relationships with other living creatures in the world are also limited and shaped. Approximately 12 thousand years ago, as hunter-gatherer societies began to settle down, first the dog and, much later, the cat were domesticated and took their place in human life. While dogs function for protection purposes, cats make living spaces safe by eating harmful insects, snakes and mice in homes. However, what happens happens after people enlarge urban spaces and no longer need their technological protection. Some of these cute friends gain new functions by being removed from their natural environments at home. Those who remain are trying to survive by struggling with the texture of city life that does not accept them.

This struggle for life does not go smoothly. Especially dogs, whose nature is to live in packs, can pose a danger to human safety and health in places and periods when they are hungry, while feeding on human waste. Modern societies around the world, which have completed their urbanization processes long ago, are no longer a part of city life that does not belong to the home. Even in developed societies, this transformation has been largely completed. However, during the transformation processes of the countryside, our lovely friends cannot suddenly adapt to the new order from this formal situation. Perhaps the most important reason why this transformation is painful in Turkey is that the phenomenon of urbanization, which begins to occur with urbanization and covers long periods, does not occur on a sufficiently healthy basis. More clearly, it is the rapid and unplanned urbanization processes.

Let's talk about the different dimensions of the debate on this issue in our country. First of all, let us emphasize that every problem that turns into a public problem is the object of political pursuit. Political governments produce policies against public problems within the framework of their own ideology and try to solve the problems. What needs to happen for the policy process to begin is the acceptance of the problem as a public problem by the political power. Political governments do not want to acknowledge the existence of the problem, sometimes for ideological reasons, sometimes in order not to offend a certain potential voter group. For this reason, we see that political governments generally hesitate to confront football fans, ethnic identities and belief groups directly. Debates that lead to division in society also create groups that political governments avoid taking sides in. This is the main reason why politics today avoids taking sides on the issue of stray dogs.

Ignoring a problem does not make it go away . The fact that stray dogs have become a problem and lead to an increasingly inextricable division in society has occurred due to the ignoring of the problem by political powers. The governments, who preferred to ignore the problem rather than taking sides and losing votes, also avoided allocating an allowance from the budget for the solution of the problem. While in some areas, stray dogs fed by benevolent people live in harmony with the fabric of the neighborhood, in some areas, deprived of food and shelter, they become aggressive and threaten city life. However, such an issue is too important to be left only to the good will of animal lovers.

Unfortunately, the discussion style of the parties to the issue in society does nothing more than make the problem inextricable. However, just as everyone can be right about the issues they defend, they can also be wrong about the issues they defend. First of all, everyone should agree that there is a living species at the center of the problem, and therefore the political solution that needs to be produced must be compatible with human values. As long as there is the image of a person being murdered by hitting his head with a shovel on one side, and the image of a child dying after being attacked by dogs on the way to school, on the other side, it becomes difficult to talk about approaches that can convince people of other solutions and produce a humane solution that is the product of common sense. However, it is the political powers that are responsible for both. But when the government turns a blind eye, people do not refrain from shouting out inhumane solution proposals (!) with emotional reactions.

First of all, people need to stay away from discourses that exploit each other's sensitivities. It should be seen and understood that accusations that amount to insults do not contribute to the solution of the problem and lead to polarization in society. Stray dog is not the name of a species. It is a noun phrase. Perhaps the most innocent ones in the formation of this qualification are dogs. Because these creatures are not responsible for rapid and unplanned urbanization, and it is certain that they do not benefit from the rent created. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all urban residents to find a humane solution for these creatures struggling to survive in an environment where they do not belong. One dimension of the humane solution is adopting animals and trying to adapt them to home life.

Adoption is not a magic wand that can solve all problems. In an environment where creatures that perceive not only other creatures, but even humans, as a species that adds color to their own lives and think that they can throw away when they get bored, can waste other lives very easily, any elimination of stray animals will not cause a problem for these creatures. The loss of lives to the streets by these creatures is a phenomenon that must be prevented. It is a known fact that the population of dogs of this breed increases on the streets, especially in holiday resorts, at the end of summer. Making a living creature a part of family life and then giving it up is no different than a person giving up on family members. Teaching that adopted creatures are not ornaments is a problem that early school education and family education should solve. Perhaps a psychiatric report should be requested from those who want to adopt an animal. Because it must be understood that throwing a living creature out cannot be done in a normal state of mind. If a person is going to give up his dog or cat, leaving it to a shelter run by local governments and bearing the costs of its lifelong care can be arranged as a humane solution. However, it is not possible to talk about the existence of a humane discussion environment in which solution proposals can be discussed.

The only way out of this discussion environment devoid of respect and love is for the political power to first accept the existence of this problem and demonstrate its will to solve it. In the policy process initiated, non-governmental organizations, professional organizations, universities and local governments representing different dimensions of the issue should come together and discuss the solutions to be produced in detail. Ultimately, it should be known that the solution method that will emerge by avoiding impositions will also have a cost, and both the society and the government should not avoid this cost.

First of all, what needs to be done is to legally regulate the duties and responsibilities of municipalities to meet the shelter and nutrition needs of stray animals within the Municipality Law No. 5393 and the Metropolitan Municipality Law No. 5216. Even though there is nothing preventing the municipality from doing this in the current structure, legal coercion will contribute to the solution. Municipalities are also required to employ enough veterinarians and caregivers for the facilities in question. Stakeholders involved in the policy process should discuss where and under what conditions housing should be provided.

It should be understood that the solution we mean here is not the shelters that are brought to the agenda due to today's negative conditions. 

I want it to happen. Shelters should be designed as modern, clean and tidy facilities that also provide adoption services. Of course, with a temporary arrangement, it is necessary to plan the transfer of resources from the central government budget to municipalities in this regard. It is imperative for the success of the solution that all these be implemented as a result of a policy process with broad participation. As a result, the capacities of shelters may be reduced over time, and their functions may change and continue to serve as a solution point for abandoned creatures.

In an environment where society is polarized on every issue and adopts hostile attitudes towards each other, perhaps it is time for us to talk again and remember the culture of respectful discussion. Most importantly, being human means understanding that humans are not the only living species in the world. The cost of a solution will definitely not be more than the public resources unfairly transferred to certain interest groups by political governments.