Sometimes I wonder which environment and mentality is in favor of animals. The one where values are low but tolerance is high [Turkey], or the one where values are high and tolerance is low [Canada]. The pictures below reflect daily interaction in Turkey between man and beast, from the Presidential Palace to the soccer field.

Pit Bulls, Tosa Inus, and a few other Mastiff Breeds have been banned in Turkey some years ago. Only the grandfathered ones exist. This is despite the fact that there were no incidents to speak of in Turkey, but they based it on incidents in other places. What Turkey has is a lot of street dogs, and street cats... and over the ages we have learned to live with them. Is there animal abuse? In a country where human life is extremely cheap, of course there is... but if you get caught the law and police are the least of your worries: the neighborhood will make you regret it.

The Turkish ban on pitbulls etc. was incorporated in an extensive piece of "Animal Protection" legislation which passed through parliament in June 2004. It prohibits the import, sale, swap or giving as present of such animals... and is open for amendment as needed as far as upcoming breeds are concerned.
Although the legislation as a whole is unique and very detailed, I always look at these things in terms of how enforceable they are, and herein Turkey differs widely from Canada. North America being the litigious society it is, goes by the law, and usually if the law cannot be enforced it does not pass. If it is passed then it usually is enforced vigorously. Turkey on the other hand is a lawless society, and things go by customs, and auto-control. You cannot sue someone in Turkey and get rich. The law prevents that. Winning a civil suit must not improve your living standards significantly. So that leaves auto-control. If your dog keeps attacking, someone will eventually shoot it. That is why street-dogs are so wise. They know, and probably have it engrained in their genes, that if they do not get along, they will not survive. Hence the extremely rare clash between man and beast, despite the millions of street dogs in major cities. When new breeds were introduced and sold as guard dogs, lacking this wisdom - they did not do so well. Dogs started attacking people, people got hurt, dogs got shot, people got shot... and finally parliament took over and banned the whole shebang. So in major cities, we are on the way back to street dogs, and the few toy breeds in selected homes. Nature controls their numbers - for both dogs and cats - and vehicular traffic picks up the surplus. The rescue and advocacy groups try to do their part with good intentions, but it was them that introduced the "Pound" system in Turkey, which has created more trouble than it was worth, and now they are trying to get rid of pounds, and replace it with TNR.

This farmer found these two cubs, with no momma bear around. He is nurturing them back to health, and when they are ready to go, they will do so into the woods seen in the background. You see, we don't have "sanctuaries" or "Bear Networks" over there. You come, you get over it, you go back.