Four-Legged City is a rights-based advocacy collective that examines relationships among humans, animals, and nature within historical, spatial, and political contexts. Our mission is to ensure recognition of animals as subjects within urban life, to expose forms of violence, neglect, and exclusion they face, and to develop comprehensive policies and societal awareness against these structural inequalities.

Our goal is to support ethical, legal, and social approaches centered around the right to life for animals, conducting multifaceted work that integrates academic knowledge with local practices and advocacy tools. We aim to contribute to the construction of fairer, more inclusive, and sustainable lifestyles grounded in the principles of the right to the city, animal rights, and interspecies justice.

We position research not merely as knowledge production but as a tool for societal transformation. From institutional memory and current policies to disaster response and shelter practices, we advocate for animals' presence and rights within urban spaces through a multilayered approach.

The vision of Four-Legged City is to contribute to building a social order in which non-human animals’ right to life is recognized, and ethical responsibilities and interspecies justice are integrated into urban policies. Our aim is to strengthen a vision of the future where coexistence with animals in cities is not only possible but equitable, sustainable, and inclusive.

Accordingly, we seek societal transformation wherein animals' existence in urban spaces is acknowledged, and policies of violence, displacement, and neglect are replaced by practices of care, mutual interaction, and rights-based approaches. Through knowledge production, archival research, field studies, advocacy actions, and artistic productions, we strive to build pluralistic and transformative discourses in academic and public spaces that position animals as subjects.

Our vision promotes a non-anthropocentric urban understanding, weaving an advocacy path that preserves historical memory and establishes the social, legal, and spatial foundation for future coexistence.

Four-Legged City carries out research-based advocacy guided by the following principles:

1. Interspecies Justice
   We unconditionally recognize the right to life for non-human animals, critically questioning anthropocentric approaches. Animals are considered not passive objects but social subjects and urban citizens.
   
   
2. Rights-Based Approach
   We ground animals' rights to care, protection, and life not in individual conscience but in a rights-based societal responsibility. We advocate for violence-free, safe, and supportive living conditions.
   
   
3. Critical Knowledge Production
   We critically analyze historical and current policies, moving beyond official narratives to create new knowledge and memory spaces. Research, for us, is more than an academic endeavor—it is a tool for social transformation.
   
   
4. Politics of Care
   We see care as an ethical and political foundation of shared life. We address interdependence and vulnerabilities where human and animal lives intersect, redefining responsibility within a social context.
   
   This approach, grounded in shared vulnerability, emphasizes care as an ongoing, mutual, spatially organized, and publicly supported domain of responsibility. We believe care for animals must collectively respond to forms of violence directly resulting from social inequalities, institutional violations, and urban policies.
   
   In this framework, care is not only an individual ethic but also a political responsibility requiring institutional and public interventions to protect and transform shared life.
   
   
5. Public Responsibility and Visibility
   We advocate making animals' presence in cities visible and call on public institutions to assume responsibility. Through documentation, exhibitions, publications, and campaigns, we inform the public and raise awareness.
   
   
6. Local Solidarity and Participation
   We strengthen neighborhood-based volunteer networks, integrating local community knowledge into decision-making processes. We prioritize local needs and experiences in our intervention practices.
   
   
7. Ethical Representation and Voice
   We carry an ethical responsibility when speaking on behalf of animals. Our representational practices emphasize sensitivity, nonviolence, and freedom from exploitation.
   
   
8. Interdisciplinary Knowledge and Critical Approach
   We build collaborations across academia, art, law, urban planning, health, and civil society to address multifaceted issues affecting animals' lives.