[Dailydrool] Dogs in Turkey

[Anne Savidge]

Elizabeth, I'm glad you had a wonderful time in Turkey. Sorry about Charlie being a bad houseguest, though! 

I'm not surprised to hear your description of the condition of stray dogs in Turkey. Turkey is a mostly Muslim country, and dogs are considered dirty to most Muslims, at least those of the Middle Eastern variety. Note that I did not say, "unclean," but "dirty." Dogs aren't regarded with the religious disgust that pigs are. However, in most Middle Eastern countries, the idea of having a pet dog, particularly one that you might being in the house, would be generally like an American deciding to keep a goat in the house. Yeah, there are a few people out there who might do it, but not very many, and the neighbors probably think they're a trifle weird.

Of course, this is a generalization. There are valued sheepherding dogs in some parts of Turkey, and there will always be some folks with pet dogs. I have had many Middle Eastern students in my 20 years of teaching English as a Second Language, and I can't recall a single one of them (Muslim, Christian, Ba'hai, or atheist) ever telling me that they had owned a dog. I can remember some of them expressing total disbelief in the way Americans treat dogs as one of the family. 

Auntie Anne