There were approximately 2,000 people in the protest, according to the police records. The protest came after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last month ordered municipalities to remove stray dogs classified as “dangerous” from the streets and place them in shelters, which effectively means death for the animals.

The organizers of the protest said that since Erdoğan's remarks, some municipalities have been torturing stray dogs and even “burying them alive” and “destroying them in a violent way.” They said that the president's remarks had been "misinterpreted." 

Drawing attention to the lack of good municipal-run animal shelters, the protesters said: “Although the municipalities have been given the job of establishing shelters and handling the issue of spaying by the Animal Protection Law of 2004, there is still not a single real shelter in any of the 1,200 municipalities.”

Turkish musicians onca Evcimik, Yusuf Güney and Doğukan Manço also participated in the protest. Güney said that he did not find it right for authorities “to imprison” the animals.