The Four-Legged City is a rights-based, research-oriented civil society organization that examines the relationships between humans, animals, and nature within historical, spatial, and political contexts.
Our mission is to ensure that animals with whom we share urban life are recognized as subjects, and to develop holistic policies and public awareness that address structural inequalities by making visible the various forms of violence, neglect, and exclusion they experience.

Accordingly, our goal is to support ethical, legal, and social approaches that center the right to life of animals, and to conduct multifaceted work that brings together academic knowledge production, local practices, and advocacy tools.
Grounded in the principles of the right to the city, animal rights, and interspecies justice, we aim to contribute to the creation of fairer, more compassionate, and sustainable ways of living.

We approach research not merely as a means of knowledge production, but as a tool for social transformation. Through a multilayered trajectory — from the institutional memory of the past to contemporary policies, from disaster response to shelter practices — we defend the presence and rights of animals within the urban fabric.

The vision of The Four-Legged City is to contribute to the creation of a social order in which the right to life of nonhuman animals is recognized, and where ethical responsibility and interspecies justice are integrated into urban policies.
Our aim is to strengthen the imagination of a future where living together with animals in cities is not only possible but also fair, sustainable, and collective.

Accordingly, we envision a social transformation in which the presence of animals in urban spaces is acknowledged; where policies of violence, displacement, and neglect are replaced by practices of care, mutual interaction, and rights-based approaches.
Through knowledge production, archival work, field research, advocacy, and art-based practices, we strive to build a pluralistic and transformative discourse in which animals are recognized as subjects in both academic and public spheres.

Our vision is to weave a line of advocacy that promotes a non-anthropocentric understanding of the city — one that carries the memory of the past while building the social, legal, and spatial foundations of coexistence for the future.

The Four-Legged City bases its work on research-oriented advocacy and operates in line with the following principles:

Interspecies Justice
We recognize the right to life of nonhuman animals unconditionally and equally, while questioning human-centered perspectives. We approach animals not as passive objects of urban life, but as social subjects and urban citizens.

Rights-Based Approach
We ground the right of animals to care, protection, and life not in individual conscience but in a rights-based social responsibility. We advocate for safe, non-violent, and supportive living conditions.

Critical Knowledge Production
We analyze historical and contemporary policies from a critical perspective, going beyond official narratives to open new spaces of knowledge and memory. We view research not merely as an academic activity, but as a tool for social transformation.

Politics of Care
We approach care as an ethical and political foundation of shared life. At the intersections of human and animal lives, we consider interdependence and vulnerability as part of a social context that redefines responsibility.

This approach, grounded in mutual vulnerability, emphasizes that care is a continuous, reciprocal, spatially organized, and publicly supported sphere of responsibility. We believe that care for animals must serve as a collective response to the forms of violence arising directly from social inequalities, institutional neglect, and urban policies.

In this framework, care is understood not merely as an individual ethic but as a political responsibility that requires institutional and public intervention to protect and transform shared life.

Public Responsibility and Visibility
We call on public institutions to take responsibility for making visible and protecting the presence of animals in the city. Through documentation, exhibitions, publications, and campaigns, we inform and engage the public.

Local Solidarity and Participation
We strengthen volunteer networks operating at the neighborhood scale and bring local community knowledge into decision-making processes. In intervention processes, we center the needs and experiences that emerge from the local context.

Ethical Representation and Voice
We act with an awareness of the ethical responsibility involved in speaking about animals. Our representational practices are guided by sensitivity, nonviolence, and the rejection of exploitation.

Interdisciplinary Knowledge and Critical Collaboration
To address the complex issues that affect animal life, we build collaborations across fields such as academia, art, law, urban planning, health, and civil society.

Dört Ayaklı Şehir: Kent, Doğa, Hayvan Çalışmaları Derneği olarak tüm çalışmalarımızı, hayvan hakları düşüncesinin temel ilkeleri ışığında ve şeffaf biçimde yürütüyoruz.

Bireysel olarak bağış yapabilir, kurtardığımız bir hayvanın koruyucu ailesi olarak bakımı ve tedavisini üstlenebilir veya gıda desteğinde bulunabilirsiniz.

Kurumsal destek için lütfen bize ulaşın: info@dortayaklisehir.org

Email: info@dortayaklisehir.org
Address: Bozkurt Mah. Seymen Sk.
No:48/B - Şişli, İstanbul/Türkiye