Old woman living with her lambs calls emergency hotline to ask for animal fodder

AFYONKARAHİSAR

An elderly woman in Central Anatolia, who is not allowed to leave her house due to a curfew imposed on people over the age of 65 amid the coronavirus pandemic, has called the 112 emergency line, requesting food for two lambs she looks after at her house.

The authorities had initially thought she was talking about her grandchildren, when she referred to them as “kuzularım,” meaning “my lambs” but is also a term of endearment in Turkish used for children, they brought her human food, instead of provender.

Officials who saw the lambs instead of grandchildren later brought fodder and handed it over to the old woman, Emine Kılıçarslan, in Afyonkarahisar province.

Kılıçarslan, 72, who did not want to accept the food items brought by the authorities considering that others would need them more, said that she had been living with the lambs for 15 days.

“I will raise the lambs at home. They get cold at night, when the summer comes, I will release them to the garden,” Kılıçdarslan added.

While they were delivered to Kılıçarslan, who did not want to accept the food boxes at first, the officers eventually persuaded her to accept the items before bringing provender for the lambs an hour later.