User:Bymedia/Dogs of Constantinople

During the Ottoman era of Constantinople the city was known by the large number of free-ranging dogs roaming its streets, tehy were seperated among themselves and in groups. The dogs didnt have owners they survived by scavenging and some charity by local population. Many Western travellers mentioned these dogs in their experiences of the town. With the beginning of modernization ideas among the Turkish municipality the dogs met an tragic end. In 1910, almost all of them, some 80.000, were collected and shipped to Sivriada, an uninhabited island, where they were left to die. A short time later an earthquake hit the city and this was considered as a divine punishment, the surviving dogs were brought back to the city. However the dog population never regained their former size.