For more than a month, animal rights activists are protesting in Baku against the Toplan Center for Homeless Dogs. All protests have been brutally dispersed by police, several activists have been arrested.
SEVGI ISMAILBEYLI: What do young animal rights activists want from Azerbaijan’s Toplan Center and why does the center for the stray dogs remain silent in the face of these accusations? In July 2021, three protests were held in front of the Toplan Center for stray dogs which is located in the suburbs of Baku.
Each time, the activists demanded to be allowed into the territory of the center or to speak to one of the officials of this department. Each time, the protests were brutally dispersed by police officers. Six of the protesters were fined 400 manats [approximately $235] each. It should be noted that more than a month has passed since the first protest but so far Toplan has not responded to the activists’ accusations.
On August 6, 2021, animal rights activists organized another protest. But this time not in front of the Toplan building but in the center of Baku – on the Fountain Square. Young activists were wearing T-shirts symbolizing the blood of homeless animals. This time law enforcement officers intervened, detained organizers of the protest, and took them to the police station. An hour later, the detainees were released.
But the events of that day did not end there. After leaving the police station, three activists – Elkhan Mirzoyev, Nijat Ismailov, and Nijat Azayev expressed their complaints to a man who offered city residents to take pictures with his monkey, animal rights activists have accused him of exploiting the animal. Police officers who were standing nearby detained the activists once again. The next day, the Sabail District Court of Baku city sentenced them to 15 days of administrative arrest.
JAMnews addressed this question to one of the organizers of protests in front of the Toplan building and in the center of Baku, animal rights activist Kamran Mammadli. According to Mammadli, the lack of transparency in Toplan’s work raises concerns. The activists do not know the fate of the dogs caught on the streets of the city by the employees of the center… “Since the beginning of the Toplan Center’s activities, this department has not published a single report on the fate of the dogs caught in the streets of Baku”…
In its early days, the center published daily reports on the number of dogs caught for neutering… He added that everyday activists witness the catching of numerous dogs on the streets of the capital, but later they are not returned to the area where they are taken away from, and there are no such dogs in the center either.
“This disappearance of the dogs without a trace gives us reason to doubt that they remain alive. And when we began to talk about it openly, our doubts began to turn into a conviction. But again, there was no information about their further fate”…
“We demand transparency of Toplan’s activities, the openness of their work to the public, return the dogs caught for vaccination and sterilization to the territory where they were taken away from”, Kamran Mammadli summed up… Despite numerous calls, no one answered at the Toplan animal care center. SOURCE…
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