Team established to capture dogs wandering around Istanbul airport
ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency
The General Directorate of State Airports Authority of Turkey (DHMİ) has established a team to capture stray dogs wandering around Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport runway. The dogs have been known to endanger flight traffic and cause temporary delays at the airport.
The team, consisting of 30 DHMİ personnel, are working round the clock to spot the dogs, catch them and put them in kennel cages, which are then given to animal shelters.
To catch the dogs, the team places kennels containing cooked meat in nine areas in which stray dogs are most likely to enter the airport premises. Once the dog is inside the kennel, the door automatically shuts, locking the animal inside.
The DHİM then notifies the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s veterinary services, which take the dogs away to animal shelters.
“Animals such as birds and dogs on the runway are a big threat to planes. Although we take precautions for the dogs, from time to time they enter the airport premises through the wire fences. When these dogs get on the runway, sometimes they delay the flights, and sometimes they cause the arriving planes to miss the runway,” the DHMİ said.
