Anger at ‘deliberate’ poisoning,

ANIMAL lovers have called on the authorities to get tough on cases of cruelty after shocking footage emerged of dogs dying in Güzelyurt, apparently after being poisoned.

A person filmed the canines’ dying moments at around 11pm on Thursday last week in a street in the İnci Park area of Güzelyurt, before later sharing the upsetting scenes on social media. Some dogs were said to have been rescued by locals.

The Güzelyurt Development and Improvement Association (Gükad) and the Güzelyurt Cultural Heritage Association condemned the incident, which they claimed “may have been organised”, because the carcasses had been “removed” the next morning.

Gükad “invited” Güzelyurt Municipality to “start applying the Animal Welfare Law immediately”, warning that “being irresponsible” in the face of the legislation was “criminal”.

A similar statement from the cultural heritage group said stray dogs had also been poisoned within the Güzelyurt open market area, and called on the council to provide a shelter and feeding area for stray cats and dogs as a “permanent solution”.

Activists from the Güzelyurt branch of the Bağımsızlık Yolu group said it had made an official complaint to police.

The animal charity Hope 4 Pets North Cyprus said the latest dog deaths were a “shameful reflection on our society here” and that it was “its duty” to report “such atrocities and raise awareness [of] such despicable acts of cruelty and abuse towards animals”.

The statement said animals had suffered “horrendous deaths from all quarters of the TRNC, predominantly in Lapta, Alsancak, Çatalköy, Ozanköy, Lefkoşa and . . . Güzelyurt”.

“Animals have also inexplicably disappeared without trace from many of these areas and others too,” Hope 4 Pets added.

“We have photographic and video evidence posted onto our [Facebook] group almost on a daily basis and it is a truly disgraceful reflection on the island we live on and its lack of maintained policies.

“The world sees, the world hears and the world boycotts visiting an otherwise beautiful place because of this alone.

“Only the government can impose strict controls in condemning such poisonings and enforcing prosecution of the individuals which perpetrate such acts and H4P will strive to continue to stamp this barbaric practice out, educate and raise awareness for the betterment of animal welfare in the TRNC.

“We live in the year 2018 and to allow these all too common practices to continue should be considered a crime.”