In the shade of a verdant apricot tree on a hot summer afternoon, Gokcen Yildiz picks up a trembling ball of light brown fur.
The ball licks her face all over, and she giggles at that.
But the laughter gives way to a more serious tone as he points to the dog's hind legs, which are missing paws.
A sign, she says, of the abuse some Turkish street dogs are exposed to.
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Jildiz is a high school physics teacher by day and a street dog protector by night.
The dog she is holding is one of the 160 she has collected on her estate where she lives on the outskirts of the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Her dogs are only a fraction of the estimated four million street dog population in the country.
It's an issue that has fiercely divided public opinion: are stray dogs street furniture to be loved and cared for?
Or does the government have to take more drastic measures, such as those that state media reports it is considering - euthanasia among them?
On her 15.000 square meter property, Jildiz takes care of elderly and disabled dogs, and those with psychological or behavioral problems.
"It's not my job, but I take care of dogs that need help.
"I'm always worried about finances because the economy is getting worse. When the price of gas goes up, everything starts to go up, like pet food, the medicine I give them or the vet costs," she says.
She's nervous about finances, but she's more worried about what will happen to the dogs if she doesn't collect them.
"The dogs that are not here eat every two or three days, but they are alive. He won't die. That's what really worries me," he adds.
Deputies from the Party (AKP) of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are working on a new bill to remove dogs from the streets.
The proposal has not yet been presented in the country's parliament, but state media reports that it could mean that municipalities catch stray dogs, keep them for about thirty days and, if the animals are not adopted during that time, put them to sleep.
This last item has angered animal rights activists and Turkish dog lovers like Yildiz, but has also raised the question of whether there are facilities around the country that can handle the extra burden.
Only about a third of provincial and district municipalities have shelters, according to Dr. Murat Arslan, president of the Turkish Veterinary Medical Association.
He says that this was one of the problems with the existing law, which requires dogs to be sterilized and then returned to the streets where they lived.
"In order to bring the animal population under control, street dogs must be caught, sterilized, vaccinated and then returned to the streets.
However, not every municipality had shelters or facilities where such operations could be carried out. Especially in small municipalities, because there are neither shelters nor enough employed veterinarians," says the doctor.
If this law, adopted 20 years ago, had been implemented, the population of street dogs would not be so large today, he adds.
Animal abandonment, overbreeding and the sale of dogs also allowed the street dog population to grow, he told the BBC.
Although animals are microchipped and registered in a centralized database, officials need to do better in enforcing fines against owners when animals are found to have been dumped on the street, he added.
Regardless of what led to the problem, activist groups such as the Association for Safe Streets argue that a solution is needed to permanently remove dogs from the streets.
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Lawyer Meltem Zorba is a volunteer for Bezbedne ulice.
She works with families who have been attacked by stray dogs and points to government statistics to show that in the past five years stray dogs have caused 55 deaths, more than 5.000 injuries and 3.500 traffic accidents.
"We have been advocating for a change in the law for three years.
"There must not be stray dogs on the streets. These attacks on people that lead to death, traffic accidents and attacks on other animals are unacceptable," she says.
They are calling for a legal requirement to remove the dogs permanently - instead of the catch-and-release protocol currently in place.
Zorba also says dogs pose other dangers, including rabies and public health problems stemming from dog feces in public places, such as parks and playgrounds.
"It's rational," she said, referring to the adoption of the new law, adding that euthanasia should be the last resort and the consequence of determining that an animal is too sick or poses a threat to society.
A national consensus seems to be slowly building around this.
A recent public opinion poll showed that almost 80 percent of respondents support measures to remove dogs from the streets and find shelter for them.
But less than 3 percent believe captured dogs should be euthanized.
Both Zorba and Yildiz support a government solution that would allow dogs to be removed from the streets, collected in newly built shelters across the country, sterilized and cared for for the rest of their lives, if not adopted.
Ministers are believed to be planning to provide local authorities with fresh funding to enforce any new stray dog laws.
But it is not clear whether the government - already dealing with an economic crisis during which inflation has jumped 75 percent this year - has the resources available for such a solution.
Look at itand this one video: I came to the vet as a stray dog
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