Strays dogs are a common feature in most major cities. Istanbul is no exception, its 14 million human inhabitants sharing the streets with an estimated 150,000 stray dogs. Understandably, there is a huge demand for food, the stray dogs forced rummage through bins and beg for scraps.
An innovative Turkish company has come up with a clever solution to the citywide issue, encouraging locals to recycle waste in order to generate food and water for the homeless pooches. Referred to as a ‘recycle-bin-kibble-dispenser,’ the basic principle of the machine is wonderfully simple.
The structure houses a water container where people can discard of unwanted H2O before recycling their plastic bottles, ensuring that thirsty strays have a clean source of water.
Unwanted water helps to hydrate thirsty street dogs!
Kibble is then dispensed at a fixed ratio for every bottle that is recycled. The cost of the food is covered by the recycled bottles, essentially giving the pups a free source of food! Pugedon has received global praise for its efforts, applauded for blending environmental awareness with the inherent trait of human kindness.
Every bottle translates into a portion of kibble!
The new contraption has been welcomed by many canine loving locals who have been outraged by the government’s previous attempts to solve the issue. Past proposals included sending city dogs to designated ‘wildlife parks.’ However, the idea was quickly quashed by animal rights activists who compared it to a 1910 ruling that saw stray dogs banished to an island and forced to starve or maul their fellow castaways.
It’s a definite thumbs up from this Istanbul stray!
As well as a lack of sterilisation, the problem is also put down to city residents purchasing puppies and abandoning them when they became too hard to handle. Animal activists maintain that the city must take responsibility for its strays until it the authorities come up with a long term solution.
Istanbul based animal rights lawyer Ahmet Senpolat puts it perfectly, stating, “Whether we like it or not, we have to take responsibility and accept the fact that stray dogs and cats didn’t just appear one fine morning on our streets.”
The contraption educates locals and nourishes stray dogs at the same time. We love it!
