This weekend we were invited by Turkey’s national animal-welfare organization HAYTAP to participate in their annual reunion and congress. HAYTAP has 300,000 followers on social media and is made up of local groups from all over Turkey.
The purpose of their annual congress is to network and to give talks about their projects to improve the lives of animals in Turkey. The majority focus on dogs and cats, providing vaccination, ear tagging, spay/neuter and release, first-aid and adoption education. They have really made such a difference over the last 20 years in the attitude Turkish people have towards stray animals. Now many Turkish people are no longer scared of stray dogs but like them, pet them, leave out food and water and some even build dog houses on the street to give them shelter. We were asked to give a talk about the serious problems we observe in Turkish slaughterhouses that, despite the horrible suffering of animals being electrically prodded, chained, hoisted alive by one leg and have their throats ‘sawed”, all have Halal certificates and are approved by the Turkish Ministry.
It was a great opportunity for Eyes on Animals to network and meet Turkish animal activists. We will work together to put more pressure on the Turkish authorities and meat and dairy companies involved in the abuse.. We also showed them what we have achieved in some plants, getting some of the animals stunned first by captive bolt stunners so that they are spared at least the fear and pain during restraint and throat-cut. We have made many new animal-activist friends here and hope that together we can get more concrete improvements for farm animals. Thank you to everyone at HAYTAP.
