Over October break I went to Istanbul with my roommate, who is a Turkish citizen. She was my guide through places that tourists don’t know about. I noticed quickly that the streets were covered with stray animals and my roommate informed me that in Turkey stray animals are all owned by the government. Each animal is tagged, tracked, and taken care of. It is illegal to mistreat the animals so people will leave out food and water for them. This has made them extremely friendly so they hang out in public spaces, unbothered by people, and allow you to pet them. I thought this a great way to deal with street animals, as well as being extremely cute so I took advantage to snap a few shots on film, which I then developed at Webster.
