In a world polluted by humans, it is also their responsibility to curb it. Raven, however, demonstrates that animals can contribute to this growing struggle. A German Shepherd dog, Raven has learned quickly how to act responsibly in protecting the environment.
Raven occasionally tours parks with his owner, Musab Subuh, in Istanbul and whenever he comes across a discarded plastic bottle or any other plastic material dumped by humans, the dog grabs it and hands it to his owner. Subuh, a Jordanian journalist, boasts that he trained Raven to develop this unusual habit, unfortunately uncommon among human beings.
Two-year-old Raven began his training about a year ago. Subuh first started teaching him how to carry plastic trash to the dumpster at home. He picked up water bottles first as Raven "loves drinking water." Rewarding the dog for every time he picked up a plastic bottle, Subuh finally managed to teach Raven how to spot plastic bottles that need to be properly dumped, among other things, from toys to slippers. Then, Subuh took Raven outside and tried him with littered plastic bottles in public places. Over time, Raven succeeded. Now, whenever he sees a plastic bottle, the pet dog grabs it in his mouth and hands it over to Subuh.
"I am happy that he managed to learn this habit," Subuh told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Friday. He said he hoped Raven can teach a lesson on not polluting the environment to humans. "I want to remind them that if dogs can do it, you can do it too and instead of littering plastic, you can put it in garbage containers. Collecting plastic is important because it can be recycled and this way, you would do less harm to the environment," he stressed.
Subuh claims German Shepherd dogs are comparatively easy to train, particularly to retrieve objects, and the process has been easy. "Now, on my command, ‘fetch,’ Raven brings plastic bottles that he finds. Sometimes, he instinctively grabs them and brings them to me," he added.
He now plans to train Raven further, so that the dog can dump the plastic bottles and other objects into the garbage containers by himself, instead of handing them over to his owner, or at least leaving them next to a garbage container.
Raven frequently goes to Maçka Park in Istanbul with his owner, who said "the feedback" on his actions are "good." "Some people even applaud when they see it collecting bottles. They give bags to us so we can collect the garbage and dispose of it. I want to support the zero waste project this way," he said, referring to an ambitious scheme to curb the waste that was launched by first lady Emine Erdoğan in 2017. Zero Waste encourages separate collection of different waste, with the ultimate purpose of recycling everything that can be recycled in a bid to cut down on waste and contribute to the economy.