Family accuses municipality workers drugging, seizing dogs

Ece Çelik – ISTANBUL

A family in the northwestern province of Kocaeli has accused the municipality workers of “raiding their single-family house,” “drugging and seizing their dogs from the garden” without their consent.

Showing surveillance camera footage that displays the municipality workers carrying the “fainting” dogs, the Ataman family made a denunciation on June 14.

According to the file, the Ataman family moved to their house in a building complex with three adopted dogs nine months ago.

However, in time, the dogs named “Çakır [Blue-eyed],” “Üçnumara [Number Three],” and “Delifişek [Madcap],” became a discussion topic between the family and the building complex manager.

“The manager was warning us not to feed the dogs, via text messages,” Pınar Ataman Akyol said, hinting the suspect behind the “dogs abduction.”

“One day, we came home and found out that the dogs were absent. We checked the security cameras and saw the municipality workers,” she said and added: “These are vaccinated and castrated dogs that do not bite anybody.”

The family, who could not find the dogs in any public or private animal shelters nearby, expect that the mystery on the whereabouts of the animals will be solved with the inquiry.