Pets Join First Turkish Animal Rights Rally
June 3, 2002 8:03 am EST
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Pet dogs, cats, turtles, horses, donkeys, birds and rabbits joined about 1,500 people in Turkey's largest city Sunday to march in the country's first-ever animal rights rally. Activists, some from the international group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have criticized Turkey for its lack of an animal rights policy. A law aimed at protecting animals has been pending before parliament since July 1999.
Mustafa Sarigul, mayor of Istanbul's Sisli district, led the march at the start of World Environment Week, cradling a lamb in his arms.
'We are all together today for the first march to show respect for the environment,' Sarigul said. 'I invite all of our citizens to protect the environment and living beings.'
City workers with brooms cleaned up behind the animals and provided buckets of water in the midday sun.
'A flea-bitten dog has as much right to live as I do,' one demonstrator's placard read.
Ankara has made moves to curb the slaughter of millions of sheep, goats and cows during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, when animals are killed in a gesture of faith and charity.
Local authorities in Turkish cities, where it's still relatively unusual to keep domestic pets, have sometimes poisoned stray cats and dogs in clean-up campaigns.
Source:
http://news1.iwon.com/article/id/73493|oddlyenough|06-03-2002::08:05|reuters.html
Alice HANSSON
Petisius Alliance, Sweden Protection of Stray Animals and Education
