Shocking Video Of Dog Incineration Prompts PETA Appeal To Azerbaijan Authorities

15 April 2015

PETA Call for an End to Mass Homeless-Dog Extermination in Run-Up to European Games

Baku, Azerbaijan – With the first-ever European Games set to take place in Baku this summer, authorities are reportedly rounding up and killing homeless dogs in horrific ways as part of an effort to “cleanse” Baku’s streets. And in light of the photos and video footage apparently showing piles of homeless dogs being burned by the dozens in makeshift incinerators, PETA sent an urgent letter to Azerbaijan Ambassador Tahir Taghizadeh calling on him to stop the slaughter and instead enact a spay-and-neuter initiative – the only effective way to reduce Baku’s homeless-dog population.

“All eyes are on Baku in the lead-up to the European Games, and what the world is seeing are piles of burning dog bones and fur spewing black smoke into the air”, says PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA are calling on Azerbaijan authorities to put an end to this massacre before the reputations of this beautiful country and the European Games suffer any further.”

News reports suggest that dogs are being shot point-black before their bodies are incinerated. As PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – point out in their letter, no extermination programme will resolve the homeless-animal overpopulation crisis. The only solution is prevention through sterilisation.

PETA’s letter to Azerbaijan Ambassador Tahir Taghizadeh is available here. More photos are available here: photo 1, photo 2, photo 3 and photo 4. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk