Ikram Korkmazer, a 51-year-old business owner is an animal lover. However, his love and compassion for animals go beyond admiring and petting them. Ikram has a soft spot for stray animals and he knows how difficult it is for them to find food. This is why he offers them meat scraps every time they come across his meat shop.
It all started when a hungry-looking cat came to his meat shop. It climbed on the counter, salivating for fresh meat. I consent to receiving emails and personalized ads.
Korkmazer felt sorry for the helpless cat so he fed her some meat scraps. He instantly fell in love with the cat and luckily, it wasn’t their first and last encounter.
According to Korkmazer, Yesim, the cat continued coming to his shop for food and even brought her kitten after she gave birth.
“She would stand on two legs, look at the meat on the counter, and ask for meat. She started to come to ask for food five or six times a day, standing on two legs. She wanted mostly spleen, heart, kidney and loved beef,” he said.
When Yesim died, her kitten kept visiting his shop for treats. Korkmazer loved Yesim so much that he named his shop after her.
Now, Yesim Meat Gallery is known not only for its fresh, delicious meat but also as a shop that offers food and love to stray animals.
This heart-warming tradition didn’t stop with Yesim and her kitten. Other stray cats and even stray dogs seemed to have caught on to how wonderful the meat shop owner is.
Every day, there are 7 to 8 cats and 8 to 10 dogs that come to his meat shop to get a taste of their meat. From spleen to heart to kidneys, stray dogs and cats enjoy the meat scraps and have a taste bud party every time they are hungry.
Eventually, Korkmazer’s good deed was recognized around the world when his videos became viral on social media. He started taking videos of the animals he was feeding and posting them on Instagram and TikTok.
A lot of people were amazed by his love for animals which made him garner thousands of followers on both social media platforms.
“I have instilled the love for animals in this world, and it makes me proud to introduce Turkey as an animal-loving country,” Korkmazer said.
Though his instant fame also drove critics, Korkmazer is more focused on the positive reactions he’s been getting. “I have 4 billion people watching my videos, and they are still watching.”
He is happy to be an inspiration to a lot of people as he continues his mission for stray animals. In fact, his family members and co-workers have started to help feed stray cats and dogs that visit his meat shop.
Korkmazer has been selling meat for 41 years and his job became even more fulfilling when he met Yesim and started feeding stray animals.
He is very proud of what he does and he plans to continue what he’s been doing, hoping to inspire more people and animal lovers to do the same.
Feeding stray animals is actually not a very rare effort from humans. We have seen more stories like this in the past where kind-hearted people look after stray cats and dogs by feeding them and even adopting them.
One of them is the homeless man in Malaysia who shared the little food he had with stray cats. This selfless act was captured in a 42-second video which also went viral and warmed the hearts of people online.