In 1967 a US Navy Lieutenant who was stationed in Turkey, Robert Ballard, acquired two working livestock guardians Zorba and Peki, from breeders in the Ankara region, Zorba was a long-coated pinto-colored dog and Peki a short-coated buff-colored bitch. Previously, the cats were tracked and killed whenever they neared a farm.Īnatolian Shepherd Dog is the name used in the United States to describe dogs descended from regional Turkish livestock guardian dogs, particularly the Kangal but also the Akbash, from the late 1960s. The great majority of cheetahs that are still killed by farmers are killed after specific attacks on livestock. Livestock losses have been cut significantly at more than 80% of the farms where the dogs have been adopted. Since then, the number of cheetahs killed by farmers is calculated to have fallen from 19 per farmer annually to 2.4. Īround 300 of the dogs have been given to farmers in Namibia since 1994 by the Cheetah Conservation Fund to help protect livestock from cheetah attacks, and the programme has been extended to Kenya. The Kennel Club of the United Kingdom recognised the Turkish Kangal Dog with effect from April 2013, and a provisional breed standard was published early in that year owners of dogs registered as Anatolian Shepherd Dogs could apply for them to be re-registered under the new name. The Kangal was definitively accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale in 1989 the most recent breed standard was published in 2018. The Kangal has been used by shepherds for protection against wolves and other predators for centuries.Ī DNA study found that the dogs of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan are genetically closest to Kangal dogs, and the researchers propose that the breed may have been brought from Central Asia by the nomadic Turks. The name derives from that of the town and district of Kangal in Sivas Province, the easternmost province of the Central Anatolia Region. The Kangal is a traditional working breed of Central Anatolia.
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