Turkish city to launch initiative to feed stray animals with leftover food

A Turkish city is currently in talks about trying to reduce food waste and feed its stray animals using new food processing techniques.

Konya, located south of the country's capital city Ankara, is planning to project to collect leftover food and process them into pet food to feed stray animals.

Ugur Ibrahim Altay, Konya's mayor, confirmed the plans, saying the wider municipality has already started projects to feed stray animals, according to Anadolu News Agency.

"Leftovers are of high nutritional value for animals. Very cheap and high-quality food will be provided to stray animals," he said.

"The facility that we will establish will have a processing capacity of 10 tons of food leftovers per day. We are planning to produce 2 tons of food on a daily basis."

He added that this project is an example to the world on reducing food waste and ensuring animal welfare. 

He urged using Turkish-grown food to make pet food instead of importing it will also benefit the local economy.

"Four hundred tons of food is consumed annually only by street animals at our municipality shelter. When our project is realized, our foreign dependency and costs will be greatly reduced in this regard," he said.

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