Just before the earthquake, there were hateful news reports about dogs living on the streets, and journalists and animal haters who feared or hated dogs for various reasons were calling for the culling and killing of dogs on the pretext of children's safety and encouraging the public to commit murder en masse. It was unreasonable for people who "supposedly" cared about the safety of children to claim that the greatest danger to children in our country was dog chasing, which had no statistical meaning, and that children were therefore unable to go out on the streets. But they did not want to be reasonable anyway. Animals, the weakest link in society, have always been the target of such provocations. We do not yet know how many children were injured and killed in the earthquake that struck the heart of the country. Thousands of children's lives could have been saved if the hatred directed at dogs had been directed at corrupt contractors and companies that cut columns.

Nowadays, perhaps by the same people, "working" dogs are romanticized. Because they have abilities that humans do not have and they save our lives. Along with construction equipment, the most needed, life-saving element has recently become search and rescue dogs. Proteo, an important part of the Mexican Search and Rescue Team that rescued two people from under the rubble, lost his life under the rubble. The people who romanticize working dogs like Proteo and those who call for the killing of stray dogs may well be the same people. And this is not as hypocritical as one might think. Because people in this intersecting cluster can tolerate the existence of animals as long as they are "useful" to people. Proteo's function determines its value. In other words, people who want stray dogs to be killed but want Proteo to save their lives apply different standards to animals and humans in determining their value.

Proteo was valuable not only because he saved lives. He was a dog with emotions, with feelings, with his own character. So is every single dog living on the streets. The mob that wants them killed is hypocritical for another reason. Their justification is not right. Animals who do not save our lives have as much right to life as those who do.

If we want to protect children's rights and make them feel safe and secure, we must first of all make them live in safe buildings and show our justified reactions to anyone who prevents this. In the hope that this time we understand what kills children and adults.

We won't forget you, Proteo!

— BURHAK

(Burak Özgüner Study Center)