These pictures were taken by Nutan Khalap (my sister-in-law) on a recent trip to Turkey. Kangals are not dingo-pariah type dogs, but they are still an ancient breed apparently developed without much human intervention, so I'm posting some pictures here.
I just love these huge gentle dogs. We saw a couple in Stellenbosch in South Africa at the Cheetah Outreach centre. They are being used in South Africa for non-lethal predator control, as they are known for their ability to protect livestock from big cats, wolves, jackals and other carnivores.
I've read that Kangal numbers are declining with changing lifestyles in Turkey, so I didn't really expect Nutan to see any. But she asked around and got to see and click them in a couple of places (one of them near Troy). Thanks Nutan!
You can read about Kangals on the net. Although they are sometimes considered the same breed as the Anatolian Shepherd Dog, they are in fact distinct as true Kangals are all from the Sivas province of Turkey. Here is one of the pages about the breed.
Photos: Nutan Khalap
Turkey
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2 comments:
They are very sweet. When I was in Turkey last year, except for when I was in Central Anatolia and more remote villages, most of the dogs I saw would have been Anatolian Shepherd/Kangal mixes. I could still clearly see the breed characteristics and they are quite large dogs. Almost all the dogs I saw in Istanbul were males and they were neutered.
I have heard terrible stories of the treatment of dogs in Turkey but with my own eyes, and probably done specifically in the tourist sites near the Aya Sofya, Blue Mosque, Galata Bridge etc .. the city could conceivably neuter the dogs in that area and notch their ears, which I saw. In Cappadoccia I saw several dogs .. all incredibly friendly except for one husky mix that was chained to a dog house, go figure, near a vendor booth by the side of a road.
I didn't know earlier that Kangals and Anatolian Shepherds are different breeds. The ones at Stellenbosch were I think Anatolian Shepherds. Unfortunately many of the Kangal sites and pages are in Turkish and I can't read them :(
Treatment of dogs is possibly a bit like in India: both extremes exist and one can't generalize here. Even in Mumbai there are kind and tolerant neigbourhoods and others that are much less so.
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