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Animal rights activists, with hand
drums and cat and dog masks on their faces, staged a powerful two-day protest
outside an international conference on dog population management in Istanbul,
Turkey
With the solidarity appeal of 11
different animal rights groups in Turkey, an ensemble of animal rights
activists rallied outside International Companion Animal Management Coalition's
(ICAM) Second International Conference on Dog Population Management at the
Grand Cevahir Hotel in Şişli, one of the busiests districts of Istanbul, on
March 3-5, for two days.
More than 50 demonstrators chanted
"Freedom for trees, animals and the Earth”, “Smash in all cages” and “ICAM
-the butcher- get the hell out of our planet”, while waving placards reading
"Animal Testing: Because You Are Worth It” and "Animal massacre will
be planned in Grand Cevahir for 3 days".
On the first day of the conference
and the rally, the activists unfurled a large banner reading “ICAM = Animal
Genocide” from inside the windows of the Grand Cevahir hotel, despite high
security measures by police force outside the hotel. One activist, Çetin
Şengül, was also taken into custody for spray painting animal liberation
slogans on the hotel walls to be released back in an hour after being fined
within the scope of misdemeanor law. The journalists, who wanted to hand a
microphone to the conference organizers, were not taken inside the premises
either.
On the first and the last day of the
conference, the protestors boycotted, as mentioned in their press release,
ICAM's
“highly problematic policy of 'animal welfare', which is based on ignoring
animals’ right to live” and its support for 'euthanasia', “killing of animals
by chemicals”, as well as the conference's attempts to “enable more animal
killings by the municipalities in conformity with new Animal Protection Bill”
in Turkey’s recent political agenda.
Throughout the conference, there was
also a huge online support for animal rights groups on social media with the
main hashtags #dogpop2015 and #NoToICAM.
In their open letter to the ICAM
Committee, the signatories - Freedom to Earth Association, The Four-Legged City
Initiative, Independent Activists for Animal Liberation, Green Anger Initiative,
Freedom for Dolphins Platform, Justice To Animals Platform, End the Use of Horse-Drawn Carriages Group- addressed
the coalition, writing: “Your
claims both encourage and act as a supportive ground for thousands of animals
to be killed with the excuse of 'protecting public health', instead of having
state agencies and local administrations taking real preventive precautions on
human health.”
One of the spokespersons for the
protesting animal rights groups, Kerem Savey, said that the coalition had not
contacted or consulted any Turkish animal rights associations in advance for
opinion on local issues and verifiable facts in Turkey regarding stray animals:
“The agenda of the conference is not
ensuring the undisputable rights of animals to live or preventing animal abuse
on a local and global basis. The agenda of the conference is the systematic
eradication of stray animals off from the streets and the manipulation of
public opinion by means of defining strays as an 'urban problem' and the source
of epidemics or zoonotic diseases. The coalition tries to procure wide
acceptance by the camouflage of 'euthanasia'. However, euthanasia means ending
a persons' life by his or her own will. It cannot be applied on animals. When
applied, it is pure murder. ICAM's claim about euthanasia being a 'humane'
practice and that it is for animal welfare is basically inconsistent and
hypocritical. ICAM is taking the mission of legitimizing and necessitating
animal killings by local administrations in public opinion. The expensive
entrance fee for the conference, on the other hand, proves that ICAM is trying
to prevent any criticism towards their aim to sow the seeds of local practices
of animal culling and their vision of non-animalization of the cities.”
The spokesperson for the Freedom to
Earth Association, Neşe Akbaş, also said, "Unlike some European countries and some states in the US,
stray animals in animal shelters in Turkey cannot be killed for not being
adopted. ICAM tries to change this by emphasizing this as a modern solution for
animal population control. But this is no different then mass murder. We are
not going to let anyone wash
the blood off the governments’ and the local administrations’ hands in order to
deflect public opinion with false and inconsistent claims and to encourage
official and public violence against animals. Neither in newly constructed
Kısırkaya, nor in pojectized Pendik Animal Concentration Camps.”
Further contact:
Freedom to Earth Association
Istanbul, March 5, 2015
https://facebook.com/onceyeryuzu
https://yeryuzuneozgurluk.org
https://yeryuzuneozgurluk.blogspot.com
https://yeryuzuneozgurluk.org
https://yeryuzuneozgurluk.blogspot.com
https://twitter.com/yeryuzuozgurluk
https://www.facebook.com/yeryuzuneozgurluk
https://www.facebook.com/groups/yeryuzuneozgurluk
https://www.facebook.com/yeryuzuneozgurluk
https://www.facebook.com/groups/yeryuzuneozgurluk
