Dogs dominate the agenda of Turkey nowadays with reports of canine attacks. Pit bulls are the culprit in the most cases while stray dogs are blamed for some non-fatal attacks. The attacks find more coverage as the country prepares to implement a ban on “dangerous” breeds, from pit bulls to dogo argentinos, starting on Jan. 14. Ahead of the ban, more dogs are abandoned by their owners on the streets while others hand over their dogs to animal shelters across the country.

Shelters will be the only place for those breeds after the ban comes into force as the ban also calls for sterilization of the dangerous dogs. Animal rights activists say more and more people are abandoning their dogs raised to be aggressive for dog fights due to the sterilization rule.

Activists say shelters are not sufficient for dogs while municipalities running the venues strive to prove them wrong. Kocaeli is among them. At “Happy Stray Animals Town” founded in northwestern province’s Kandıra district, dogs from banned breeds are either found on the street or delivered to the shelter by their owners. The shelter, sprawling across a space of 140 acres, aims to give animals a natural habitat, its staff says. Feyzi Karabıyık, who heads a veterinary branch of Kocaeli municipality, says people randomly abandoned banned dogs on the streets ahead of the ban. “Citizens should contact us for transferring them to shelters. They won’t be fined for doing so and it is a safer way for these dogs,” he told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Friday. Apart from fences surrounding the facility and dividing sections for different species, the shelter has no cages for dogs. “They will live here until the end of their lives, so we decided not to keep them in cages. They have more space here,” Karabıyık says. He notes a significant surge in the number of pit bulls handed over the shelter and they were accommodated at a section covering 7 acres inside the shelter, along with other dangerous breeds. In two months, the shelter received nearly 50 more new dogs from dangerous breeds and they have now about 100 dogs from those breeds.

In the western province of Manisa, municipality’s shelter houses dogs “involved in crimes,” most of them from breeds set to be banned. The shelter provides them with a rehabilitation program to curtail their aggression. Though deemed “dangerous,” dogs are not naturally aggressive but raised to attack others by their owners, according to experts. A total of 180 dogs, including 150 pit bulls saved from dog fights and maltreating owners, are sheltered in the venue. The rehabilitation program involves giving toys donated by children to the shelter to the dogs to restore their mental health. “We treat the injured dogs and sterilize them. They are our guests,” Erhan Ince, a municipality official, says. Ince said all the dogs were used for criminal purposes in the past, from dog fighting or being incited to attack people. “They are victims of bad owners. We give them both physical and spiritual therapy,” he told Ihlas News Agency (IHA). Ince says toys have been particularly effective on their mental health and they were now warmer towards people.

“We run a shelter here but this is like a prison for them. They cannot be released or handed back over to their owners,” Soyuhan Barlas, a vet working at a shelter for “dangerous” dogs in the northwestern province of Edirne says. Barlas is in charge of 25 such dogs. “It is not their fault to be born as member of their breed and it is unacceptable to keep them detained for life. But this is the only option,” Barlas told Demirören News Agency (DHA).