TURKEY: A WOMAN FIGHTS AGAINST LOCAL MOSLEM OPPOSITION TO THE 100 STRAY CATS SHE KEEPS AT HOME

Record ID: 376096

  • Title: TURKEY: A WOMAN FIGHTS AGAINST LOCAL MOSLEM OPPOSITION TO THE 100 STRAY CATS SHE KEEPS AT HOME
  • Date: 15th November 1995
  • Summary: TUZLA, TURKEY (RECENT) (RTV ) 1. SLV APARTMENT BUILDING WHERE NEZAHAT OCAL LIVES WITH HER 100 CATS (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. CU OF SEVERAL CATS MOVING ABOUT (2 SHOTS) 0.29 3. SLV/SV OCAL COVERED WITH HER CATS (2 SHOTS) 0.47 4. CU CAT AND KITTENS IN BASKET 0.50 6. SV OCAL SEATED WITH KITTENS IN HER LAP 0.57 7. CU CAT CLIMBING CURTAIN 1.05 8. SV OCAL NEXT TO KITTENS IN BASKET SAYING THEY CAME ROUND A FEW DAYS AGO AND SAID I HAD 15 DAYS TO GET RID OF THE CATS OR THEY WOULD COME AND TAKE THEM - OVER MY DEAD BODY (TURKISH) 1.11 9. CU OF CATS AND KITTENS (2 SHOTS) 1.30 10. SLV OCAL FEEDING HER CATS, CATS GATHERED AROUND FOOD 1.35 11. LV GINGER CAT SEATED ON WINDOW SILL 1.40 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 30th November 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TUZLA, TURKEY
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVA9Z3GG4V1NWCPWC787KG4YRX8R
  • Story Text: INTRO: In the backwater district of Tuzla in southeast Istanbul, a 65-year-old woman is fighting against local opposition to the 100 stray cats she keeps at home.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------- A woman's love of stray cats has set her against her community.

    The Moslem district of Tuzla is fed up with Nezahat Ocal and her cats - over a hundred stray animals she has taken under her wing.

    The local haji - a Moslem who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia - has rallied the district against Ocal.

    "That haji stones the cats, he also killed three of my cats," said Nezahat Ocal, 65, who has been collecting and looking after stray and unwanted cats for nearly 20 years.

    Ocal says the haji has collected signatures for a petition demanding she get rid of the cats.

    She said he was backed by local Islamists, and even got the imam at Tuzla's mosque to pass the petition the congregation after prayers.

    The haji had complained to Tuzla's Islamist mayor, who sent round police inspectors and the municipality's vets.

    "They came round from the municipality a few days ago and said I had 15 days to get rid of the cats or they would come and take them away -- over my dead body," she told Reuters.

    The haji, who refused to speak with journalists, watched from his window across the road as Reuters interviewed Ocal in her three-storey detached house.


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