As she sifts through a pile of photos, stopping at each one with thought, Palo Alto High School junior Asya Buyukcangaz pulls out a photo of an injured cow that got infected from a concentrated animal feeding lot. She recalls her experience caring for Nazar the cow at an animal sanctuary in Turkey.
“Nazar escaped from a slaughterhouse and swam in the Mediterranean ocean for 14 miles,” Buyucangaz said. “HAYTAP brought [in] the animal and we took care of it in the retired animal farm.”
Buyukcangaz is just one of many with a love for animals. But her passion extends beyond caring for animals — she is a vocal advocate for animal rights.
Growing up in her mother’s veterinary hospital in rural Turkey, Buyukcangaz was surrounded by animals in need, each with a different story.
“I always saw how people beat up and punish their animals, not only their pets, but sheep, livestock because they were not making enough milk or anything,” Buyukcangaz said. “That’s what really motivated me to look at how I can help these animals and not only just like pets, but all of the animals: cows, donkeys, sheep, and all kinds of livestock. I was really heavily interested in helping them out.”
Three years ago, Buyukcangaz started volunteering with HAYTAP, a Turkish animal rights federation with the mission of enacting harsher punishments for animal abusers in Turkey.
“For example, the Turkish Animal Protection Law 5199 does not provide a strong enough punishment for animal abusers,” Buyukcangaz said. “They only provide some fee and they can get along with it and do not have to go to jail. HAYTAP works with lawyers and veterinarians, and many people who are volunteering like me, too.”
According to Omer Semih Celik, Buyukcangaz’s mentor at HAYTAP, the organization also cares for animals that have been impacted by natural disasters.
“In HAYTAP, we work on the field in earthquakes sites or other natural disasters, then we collect the animals who are ingested or are in danger in retired animal farms and look after them with professionals or veterinarians until they are able to be sent back to their environment again,” Celik said.
Buyukcangaz says she currently manages the organization’s English Facebook page, creating daily posts of HAYTAP events and current news regarding animals to reach international audiences.
“For me, advocating for animal rights not only embodies better animal treatment, but also our humanity and empathy,” Buyukcangaz said. “[It] can help build a more compassionate world in which all living beings are treated with dignity and respect.”
After moving from Turkey to Palo Alto, Buyukcangaz created a veterinary medicine club at Gunn High School — which she has continued since her transfer to Paly this year — to raise awareness on animal rights. Through her club, she hopes to continue her activism work by looking into the hygiene of animal shelters or animal hotels in the Bay Area to inspire the local community to be more aware of animal health and rights.
“I share my experiences I had in Turkey as an animal rights advocate and hopefully inspire more people in the community and the rest of the Bay Area to hopefully take action and to realize what’s going on in the world and how they can help,” Buyukcangaz said. “I want to continue my work in Palo Alto by starting with animal shelters and investigating how hygienic the conditions are.”
Although abusing animals is not as prevalent in the Bay Area, Buyukcangaz believes that it is still important to shed light on this issue that impacts other parts of the world and inspire others to take action.
“I think it’s my duty to make the organizations that promote animal rights activism, and to make it more known and common,” Buyukcangaz said. “People always talk about climate change or some other activism, but animal rights activism is always kind of not really talked about enough.”
In the future, Buyukcangaz believes that she would like to continue being engaged in veterinary medicine. Not only to continue her work in animal rights advocacy, but to inspire others with her experiences.
“I think that veterinary medicine is huge, there’s so many opportunities you can go to by studying it,” Buyukcangaz said. “I also really want to advocate for animal rights because I think it’s important to raise awareness about how the world can take action about this. After being raised in an environment surrounded by animals, I want to continue helping them.”