Dogs will prevail, cats will prevail, life will prevail

In memory of Mehveş

“There are people who have the capacity to imagine themselves as someone else, there are people who have no such capacity (when the lack is extreme, we call them psychopaths), and there are people who have the capacity but choose not to exercise it.” - J.M. Coetzee, “The Lives of Animals”

Hello, beautiful dog!

Thousands of lantern lights and Bella Ciao accompanied the sunset and a dog's head was waving. It was one of the most extraordinary images I have ever witnessed, accompanying an enthusiastic protest crowd. Accompanying a version of the anthem adapted for stray animals, the crowd chanted:

“The sun will rise, the dog will bark

Bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao!

Passers-by will say hello,

Hello, you beautiful dog!”

Thousands of us were in Kadıköy on July 27 to protest the stray dog bill, which was being discussed in the general assembly of the Parliament as I was writing this article.

Even I, whose job is with words and images, would not have thought that the lights of smartphones, a new version of an anthem we've heard and sung a million times, a person “dressed in a dog's coat” and the sunset together could create such a magical scene...

In that twilight, in the honorable crowd defending the rights of stray animals, day and night, animal and human, the charged past and the worrisome future were blurring.

There were so many emotions in the atmosphere: Hope, despair, fear, courage, sadness, anger, togetherness, yet loneliness... As some of the speakers said, that crowd was never an “apolitical minority of animal lovers” or a “marginal minority.” Undoubtedly, people with different political views had come together to protest the “massacre law” that the government was trying to quickly pass through parliament in the heat of July. But this unity showed that the defense of animal rights and even the love of animals is as political as the killing of animals.

As animal lovers, writers, a handful of MPs in parliament who express the will of a substantial segment of society (85 percent according to polls) against the massacre, and various non-governmental organizations have been raising their voices for days and weeks: Animal murders and animal slaughter are political, just like the murders of women and LGBTI+.

Following the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, misogyny, emboldened by the lack of sanctions, has taken over not only social media but also everyday life. Başak Cengiz was attacked and killed by Can Göktuğ Boz with a samurai sword. The perpetrator's justification was that he wanted to kill someone and chose a woman “because it was easy.” 

These seemingly “random” cases of violence point in the same direction as the perpetrators who feed on “male justice” and know that “good behavior discount” is waiting at the court in a country where women are killed at a much higher rate by men they know and are close to: If you pave the way for violence instead of preventing it, you will paint the houses and streets with blood.

Women and LGBTI+ people were and are shown as “easy targets” in a patriarchal society full of anger, most of whom live below the poverty line. Discrimination, inequality, and lack of sanctions feed violence and murders.

While child abuses and gang rapes were covered up, child marriages were supported, anger has been directed toward stray animals. The number of rabies cases was exaggerated, statistics were used to their fullest extent as an art of lying. A dichotomy of “animal versus human” was created, polarization and enmity were fomented day by day, even though those defending animal rights never claimed such a thing. Undoubtedly, with various money expectations and “opportunities” such as squeezing CHP and other opposition municipalities that oppose the law, one of the biggest massacres in the history of the world is being tried to be legalized.

Of course, no one is advocating that even a single child or human being should be harmed. They only explain that the measures that can be taken in this regard are much easier and more feasible than massacres; “sterilize, vaccinate, keep in place”, they say tirelessly.

The vets cry out: “We don't want to be hired killers”.

At the protest, a veterinarian drew attention to the threats of the law that will affect all life, especially herd immunity, saying: “There are 45,000 veterinarians and more than 11,000 private clinics in the country. If we all sterilized and vaccinated three animals a day, this issue would be over in three months. We are volunteers, we are ready.”

In a country whose trees and streams have been plundered, in a society that is becoming loveless and selfish day by day, one of the last remaining beauties of a society that is becoming poorer, deprived, loveless and selfish day by day, the ability to share life with stray animals, is about to be ruthlessly destroyed. These are historical moments that will show whether each of us has the capacity to “understand the suffering of others,” one of the many greatnesses we attribute to human beings...

Will you choose darkness or light? There is a lot of data showing that the vast majority of society defends the “right to life”, at least for animals. The protests that took place in various cities, especially in Istanbul and Ankara, also show this: Even if the law is passed by the general assembly, there are many people who will not let their hands touch the cats and dogs in their neighborhoods and streets. We are too many. I still can't bring myself to say “When the law is passed”; if the law is passed, there will be a huge social resistance against it.*

The struggle for our friends on the streets will be added to our lives that are darkening day by day. We will witness unimaginable scenes of violence. Children will grow up witnessing the brutal killing of animals.

The “sigh” of every creature, that we cannot prevent from dying or being “put down” in horrible conditions in shelters that smell of blood, will mix with every breath we take. The emptiness of those unjustified sources of enthusiasm for life that we encounter when we turn the corner of the street in the country will never be filled. It will be much more difficult not to darken the heart.

I am not exaggerating at all. We are not exaggerating at all. Just like before every massacre, slaughter, and destruction, the curtains drawn in front of our eyes prevent us from seeing the “full” view of the horror that will encompass not only the animal but also the human being, even for a moment. But unfortunately, this is the reality. If our stray animals are slaughtered, “the end of life as we know it” may indeed come.

Mehveş

Although animal love or advocacy for animal rights is mostly reserved for people who have been in close contact with at least one animal, it is never just a “feeling”, it is also very political. At least as an attitude, as a way of seeing and living the world.

There is a vast corpus that was born out of the struggle for animal rights that extends from “compassion”, which prerequisites human superiority, to the arguments of thinkers such as Bentham and Singer that target this dichotomy, to Derrida's deconstructive approaches, which draw attention to the commonality of our fragility as living beings, and who points out that even to say “animal” is to produce violence in language, and beyond, to the present day.

Of course, today, in our society, we still have to appeal to the “thinnest” (or thickest) string, compassion. However, the right to life of animals is not something that can be left to human compassion, it is not a matter of mere emotion, it is not an area of superiority. They have as much right to live and live in good conditions as humans.

If you spend a few years with an animal, especially a “stray” animal, it “looks” at you as much as you look at it, in every sense of the word. You understand the world, humanity, nature, and yourself all over again. 

I took Mehveş from the street when it was two years old and brought it home. For the next seven years, I experienced some of the most challenging, most joyful, most meaningful, most instructive, most special moments of my life with it.

It was a creature of extraordinary beauty, with a majesty that made it feel “bigger than life” and one of the most mischievous characters I have ever met. All cats are unique, just like dogs and people.

When it was four years old, it was diagnosed with a very rare heart disease in cats. I have always come across very good vets, both through Mehveş and Aliş, whom I adopted a year later from an owner who could not take care of it. Because of my own experience, I wholeheartedly believe that there are many very good veterinarians in our country.

When Mehveş was four years old, the vet gave it a life expectancy of “a few months or a year...”.

It led a happy, active, loving, and lively life until the age of nine.

One day I received a call from the vet. “Unfortunately, there is nothing more we can do... You can put it to sleep if you wish,” the vet said. They added that the cat would be happier if it spent the last days at home, provided I was ready at all times. Realistic, conscientious, and like a good doctor.

“You can put it to sleep if you wish,” is one of the few sentences in my life that made me cry on the first sidewalk I saw in the middle of the day.

I didn't put it to sleep and I couldn't because I knew it wanted to live. After that sentence, it lived for three more months, we had many beautiful moments. It took its last breath in my arms one morning a few months ago. It is now in its eternal sleep against a beautiful sea view.

After Mehveş, I heard the words “you were so good to it, you did everything you could” a lot. Each time I gave the same answer. “I was normal, it was a very good cat to me. I can't compare the kind of effort I gave to it and Aliş with anything in my life, but I have no definition that can match what they gave me. It is indescribable...”

In these last weeks, since the first day when the bill was discussed and during that extraordinary sunset during the protest, I have always felt Mehveş by my side.

I will not stand by and watch any animal being taken to its death in front of my eyes, or any animal being subjected to violence in front of my eyes. This is my debt to Mehveş, who has contributed more to my “me” than many people, more than many books and movies.

There are many people who feel and think like me. There are so many of us.

“Parliament! Don't get blood on your hands, withdraw the law!” I would like to make one last plea on my own behalf. By the time this article is published, it may be too late. But no matter what happens, I know we are too many to leave stray animals to the dark fate of a cruel law.

Dogs will prevail 

Cats will prevail 

Life will prevail

*Editor’s note: The author penned this column before the parliament passed the bill.