This book explores the intricate relationship between humans and animals in the context of modern Turkish history. From drafted animals in war, to urban stray dogs and the role of cattle in the Kurdish conflict, the cases developed in this book show how animal lives are deeply entangled with human affairs, including complex social organisations such as families, states and nations. In doing so, the book exposes power dynamics, exploitative practices, and the discursive regimes that underpin development, nationalism, and urban growth.

This important book offers a timely exploration of human-animal relations, critically revising a number of concepts such as human rights, productivity, health and efficiency from a multispecies perspective.

'A vital and timely investigation of human responsibilities toward animals and to each other, this book offers us new ways to think about power, violence, and agency. Ranging from urban spaces to conflict zones, and among animals from dogs to goats, Zeybek shows us new ways of living with ethics and hope.'

-Bathsheba Demuth, Brown University, author of Floating Coast, USA.

'This important and innovative book opens our eyes to the violence and anxieties, but also to the compassion and hopes that characterize our relationship with animals.  Telling us deeply moving stories about how human and animal lives have intersected in Turkish history and contemporary life, Ozan Zeybek demonstrates that "our bond is real" and that concerns about equality and social justice should extend to all creatures who share our world.'

-Dorothee Brantz, Center for Metropolitan Studies, TU Berlin, editor of Beastly Natures, Germany.

'How does mapping histories of animals and human-animal relationships in modern and contemporary Turkey challenge anthropocentric norms about expanding economies, ethnic conflicts, consumption patterns, and nationalist ambitions? Focusing on actual events to highlight the multispecies dimensions of exploitation, Zeybek offers a timely and insightful corrective to ideologies fuelling state-sponsored violence.'

-Susan McHugh, Professor of English, University of New England, author of Dog, USA.

This book explores the intricate relationship between humans and animals in the context of modern Turkish history. From drafted animals in war, to urban stray dogs and the role of cattle in the Kurdish conflict, the cases developed in this book show how animal lives are deeply entangled with human affairs, including complex social organisations such as families, states and nations. In doing so, the book exposes power dynamics, exploitative practices, and the discursive regimes that underpin development, nationalism, and urban growth.

This important book offers a timely exploration of human-animal relations, critically revising a number of concepts such as human rights, productivity, health and efficiency from a multispecies perspective.

Sezai Ozan Zeybek is a human geographer and lecturer at the Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University of Berlin, Germany. Formerly in the Sociology Department at Istanbul Bilgi University, he has published five children's books and co-hosts two Turkish podcasts: one on food in cinema and another on ecological activism.