A sweet video showing a group of stray dogs helping themselves to a butcher shop’s leftovers is warming the hearts of animal lovers. In the video, a stack of raw poultry bones is outside on the sidewalk in a cardboard box. One by one, the dogs tentatively approach the box and help themselves to a bone. But what is remarkable to watch is just how considerate each dog is, as they politely only take one piece away with them.
What looks like an old Golden Retriever walks to the box slowly and then picks up a bone before slowly walking away. One dog looks hesitant and crouches when he approaches. Another wags his tail happily, as if he can’t believe his good fortune.
The video appears to have first shown up on social media channels in March of 2021 and is credited to TikTokker @ugursa_. The TikTok video has since disappeared but it has popped up on Facebook and reddit.
Many viewers remarked at how well behaved the street dogs are.
One redditor who lives in Puerto Rico opinioned that strays are “super smart” and interact with a lot of different people. From his experience he says that, “Most strays are human shy / respectful, and learn to not run into houses, to respect random property.” He observed that the butcher is giving away chicken carcasses. “Those things are badass to a dog, their favorite. Dogs absolutely LOVE bones (chicken bones in particular). A chicken carcass has like 2 days worth of ‘bone’ in it. For most of these dogs, this single carcass is almost a 2 day meal.. so ya, these dogs are freaking happy!”
Some people expressed concern over giving dogs bones, but others quickly pointed out that cooked bones pose a bigger threat to dogs because they can splinter and cause internal damage and the ones being left out by the kindly Good Samaritan are raw.
Other viewers wondered if the video was filmed in Turkey. One redditor confirmed the video is in Turkey, as they recognized the logo on the cardboard box as being from a Turkish company.
Another redditor remarked that “In most Turkish cities, stray cats and dogs are treated very well. The municipality will spay/neuter, tag them, and drop them back off in the same neighbourhood that they were picked up in. They get regular veterinary care as well.” They continued, “Everybody leaves out bowls of food and water, and many restaurants have basically adopted them, and look after them. Many butchers and seafood markets will do this – they either leave scraps out, or feed it to the strays if they come up looking for food.”
“Like someone else mentioned, cats basically run the city of Istanbul,” the redditor added. “I was sitting on a patio a couple of years ago, and a cat came up, actually snubbed a chicken finger until the waiter told us which sauce the cat liked. It really is heartwarming to see them looked after so well, but also sad that they’re out in the elements, sleeping outside.”
The unnamed butcher is not the only Turkish butcher with a kind heart. Ikram Korkmazer, who also lives in Turkey, is obviously an animal lover. Cats and dogs regularly hang out at his shop to get food. His videos went viral after one video of a visit from a cat, who leaned up on the meat counter to ask for a treat, garnered over a million views.
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Korkmazer also has several dogs who patiently wait outside on his sidewalk for a snack (or two or three).
And in the following video you can tell that this butcher has his regulars as one dog eagerly wags his tail in anticipation of a plate of food.
Istanbul has many purebred stray dogs and even more cats. There are a number of American animal rescues who work with Turkish rescues to find the stray animals homes and to support their efforts to feed the animals, especially in the winter months.
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