Yesterday, a friend posted this beautiful photo of her two dogs in our Terra Canis Telegram group. I know both dogs and their stories. First one, then the other, have found a home with a caring human being who loves them deeply, including their imperfections.
What you see in this picture is what many of us long for with each other, too.
To be close to another being in calm and peace.
To share space and connection without tension. Without our nervous systems constantly going into alarm mode.
Without constant misunderstandings, without a thousand triggers, without that inner tightening that ruins what could have been simple and good. I believe you all know, what I’m talking about.
Dogs can teach us something here, if we allow them. They teach us presence. They teach unconditional love. Dogs mostly want one thing from us: to be with us. They are teachers of connection, if we are willing to learn.
It is deeply rewarding for us to see two of our shelter dogs, finally adopted, united in harmony, making their human being happy. This is the ideal that we are striving for in our work, why we are rescuing dogs and fostering them to be adopted.
And because I have seen it myself, and because our supervisor and friend Barbara Kovats and our amazing Terra Canis team have seen it too, we know dogs heal us humans on many different levels. That is why we feel a strong responsibility toward what I like to call „the great dog spirit“. In Egypt this spirit was called Anubis. A spirit that has been connected to our collective evolution for thousands of years. When injustice happens to that spirit anywhere in the world, we want to stay alert.
One situation that has been hard to ignore is what has been happening to street dogs in Turkey. For a long time, people in Turkey lived in everyday coexistence with animals who lived outside. Traditionally, the Turks were nomads and it was very normal in their communities to have half-domesticated dogs living outside. People fed them and looked after them, even if the dogs did not live inside a home. The legal idea for years was generally „catch, treat, sterilize, return“ to the original area. But in practice, this was not consistently implemented, and capacity was limited. So the number of dogs grew. The situation got more and more tense, with increasing conflict.
At the same time, public debate shifted. In the media and politics, street dogs were increasingly portrayed as a threat. In summer 2024, Turkey’s parliament passed a law requiring municipalities to place them in shelters. In Turkey there are four to five million street dogs, while shelter capacity is only for about 100.000 dogs.
The law also allows euthanasia under certain conditions, officially only for dogs that are dangerous or seriously ill. In real life, overload and weak oversight translate into mass murdering.
Then something bad happens: a child is attacked and critically injured by stray dogs. Emotions boil over, and the situation spirals beyond control. Cruelty takes hold. Dogs are poisoned at night, abused, rounded up and taken away, often to unknown destinations. Many die in transit or arrive dead at overcrowded shelters, where others die as well. Accounts describe dogs crammed into trucks, buried alive, beaten to death, suffocated in plastic bags, or killed painfully with cheap toxins.
Authorities raid private shelters and confiscate dogs that have been cared for and loved for years. People are left desperate, grieving, and powerless, hoping the animals suffered as little as possible. Even dogs resting in their own gardens are pulled out with snares after neighbor complaints. After protests, the law was officially annulled, but from our animal rights activists and our contacts in Turkey, we know that the killing continues: “If it the law was truly annulled, why do the brutal roundups continue without pause? Why don’t the killings stop?“
We, the team at the Terra Canis Dog Sanctuary in Tamera, a Peace Research and Education Center in Alentejo, Portugal have decided to not turn a blind eye to the fate of the street dogs in Turkey and will adopt two dogs from that situation. Of course, that does not solve the fate of millions. However, it is a concrete act of solidarity with the animal activists in Turkey who use every possible space and resource to protect animals, often under enormous pressure. It also creates visibility. Visitors will meet these dogs, hear their stories, and maybe find their own way to stand with life.
For us, this connects the outer world and the inner world. Violence toward animals does not exist in isolation. It tells us something about the state of our societies and about what happens when frustration, fear, and despair are redirected toward those who cannot defend themselves. The more we normalize cruelty, the more we damage something in ourselves too.
Maybe that is also the message of the photo of Jacko and Aladin, the two happy, cuddling dogs at the beginning of this article. Connection is possible. Peace is possible. Compassion is not naive. It is a choice.
If you want to help, share this information, support local rescuers and animal welfare groups, and speak up for humane solutions. Every form of responsibility matters. We are looking for a foster or adopter for Luna, the black dog and also for the others in the pictures.
We are also looking for someone to adopt Nero or someone who can drive him from Turkey to Portugal, because he is too heavy to go by plane.
Spread the word and help the Turkish dogs. New updates of this mission will come soon. Thank you for your support.
If you would to help and support our work in any way, please write to Barbara Kovats at dogs@tamera.org
If you would like to support the work in the Terra Canis Dog Sanctuary in Tamera please donate to:
Account holder: ASSOCIAÇÃO PARA UM MUNDO HUMANITÁRIO
Holder address: Monte do Cerro, 7630-392 Relíquias, Odemira, Portugal
Bank: Crédito Agrícola
Bank address: R 25 de Abril 8, 7630-611 São Teotónio
Account number: 40181786558
IBAN: PT50 0045 6332 40181786558 45
BIC/SWIFT: CCCMPTPL
Reference: dog sanctuary 2025
THANK YOU!
Sources for context:
- Background on Turkey’s stray dog challenge and policy context: https://wellbeingintl.org/turkeys-homeless-dog-challenge/
- Haytap – Animal Rights Federation in Turkey: https://www.haytap.org/tr/what-is-happening-exterminating-millions-of-dogs-in-turkey
- A balanced documentary on ARTE (in German, other languagses available) https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/117241-012-A/re-turkey-stray-dogs-targeted/