TRIGGER WARNING: The linked article includes some graphic descriptions. I do not like this at all and fully disapprove - I am just sharing this to raise awareness.

There have been numerous reports in previous years of the inhumane killing of dogs and cats in the Central Asian state, though Turkmen authorities have never officially acknowledged the practice.

But former utility workers speaking on condition of anonymity told RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service how they were tasked with killing the animals – acting on “orders from above” – as one animal rights activist describes it.

“If you have to, bring [the dog or cat] from home, but the plan has to be carried out,” one worker said he was told by his superior.

Officials at public utility companies issue a quota of animals to be killed and demand that employees implement a special plan to carry out the killings, which usually involves poisoning, starving, or beating the animals to death. Others are shot. In order to meet the quota, household pets can also be targeted. Workers who protest the orders are threatened by their bosses.

Those who refuse to carry out the killings are sometimes also made to pay people willing to kill animals, with managers deciding how much should be paid for the job, the former workers told RFE/RL.

…

Initially used as a means to exterminate the rapidly increasing animal population after thousands of residential buildings were demolished in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, the slaughtering of animals spread to other regions. Roundups often intensify in the run-up to important state and government events, such as a visit by authoritarian President Serdar Berdymukhammedov or his father, Gurbanguly, who he replaced in 2022.

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These incidents are occurring despite a state law adopted in July 2022 against animal cruelty. It includes a provision that regulating the population of stray dogs should be carried out “by methods that exclude cruelty and unnecessary suffering.”