On August 2, 2024, the Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Protection of Animals entered into force, we share the call published by the Defenders of the Right to Life.
The amendment numbered 7527, passed by majority vote in the Turkish parliament on August 2, has laid bare the fascist and authoritarian methods used against animals, revealing the purest form of speciesist domination.
While the previous law applied the “neuter–vaccinate–let live in place” principle, the new law and its regulations state that all street dogs will be confined in prisons disguised as “shelters.” Starting with those considered “victims of overbreeding,” all dogs may be executed.
Since the law was approved by the state, hate speech and violence against animals have skyrocketed on social media. Violence toward street animals and the people who care for them has also increased. At the same time, brutality and mass killings inside municipally run shelters have continued to escalate.
With the enforcement of the law, thousands of dogs and cats have been slaughtered in shelters. Violence and massacre against animals have grown day by day. In recent months, emboldened by this law and the climate of hate it fueled, an elderly woman, Ülker Güleryüz, was burned alive in her home in Ankara along with the dogs she cared for, in an arson attack whose perpetrators remain unknown. In Izmir, Şevket Yerdeşen was shot and killed by his neighbor simply for looking after dogs in his home.
This law not only inflicts physical and psychological violence upon animals—it also aims to destroy the solidarity and coexistence between human and nonhuman beings. Meanwhile, the construction of shelters and procurement of lethal drugs through state tenders serve to enrich certain actors. The state, viewing animals as commodities, shapes public opinion through its media arms, legitimizing exploitation and establishing dominion over nonhuman life.
Since this massacre law was introduced, we have used every means available to defend the lives of animals and to resist the violence that the state enacts upon both human and nonhuman beings. Yet the state has not taken a single step back. The massacres continue.
Therefore, we are launching a hunger strike in Istanbul, Izmir, and Eskişehir.
We call on you to support this action and to stand against the repression of the state by:
Organizing demonstrations in front of Turkish consulates and embassies,
Spreading anti-tourism campaigns against Turkey,
Boycotting all products manufactured in Turkey,
Sharing and expanding this call in your own countries, cities, and collectives.
To vegans, anarchists, and all revolutionaries who reject domination in all its forms:
This is not merely a hunger strike.
This is a resistance blade driven into the veins of the system.
This is not merely a body.
This is a collective will for vengeance against domination, passed down through generations.
And we are marching directly into this system—to tear it down.
We are not sparks — we are the fire.
We are not ash — we are the uprising.
And we are not coming — we were already here, and we will remain.
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