As a result of the trial of the perpetrator who killed Köpük, a puppy dog who was tortured to death for minutes in Kırklareli, and who admitted to the accusations, the perpetrator was sentenced to a fine of only 6,000 TL as a result of the trial held at the Kırklareli 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance under the file numbered 2023/249E.

This decision is the collective work of people and members of the media who increase the dose of hate speech against animals through social media and the media, politicians who directly initiate these discourses or remain silent about what happens to animals, members of the judiciary, whose independence we doubt day by day and whose independence is increasing day by day, who do the "necessity" of the attitude of the government instead of making a decision based on law or conscientious conviction and who do not side with the victimized animals by acquitting the perpetrators, and those who do not speak out against what is happening in the process we are in and in which we receive news of a different massacre every day.

We will appeal against both the tragicomic sentence and the refusal to accept the participation requests of animal rights defenders. The Law on the Protection of Animals was amended in 2021 with the promise that animals would no longer be seen as property but as lives, and the penalties for killing animals were set at amounts that could be postponed or converted into fines.

Today, we see that this law, which is already inadequate and tokenistic, is not being implemented, that the courts continue to impose less and less sentences, that the crimes committed by municipalities remain completely unpunished due to the lack of permission to investigate, and that impunity has become a habit even in incidents that hurt the public conscience and cause the most outrage.

If no measures are taken and law enforcement and the judiciary continue to fail in their duties, this snowballing violence, which threatens all animals and society, will spread even further through the courts, which can establish their legitimacy in the eyes of the public by promising to deliver justice.

Take a good look at this verdict, and if you can bear it, watch the video of Köpük being violently killed for minutes on end. Think about how many animals like Köpük we have lost and will continue to lose because of this impunity. The next time you see people and posts spewing hatred against dogs or other animals, declaring them criminals, spreading the idea that they should be killed like a virus, think of Köpük and this court that set the price of his death as a 6,000 TL fine.

Keep fighting for them!