There are about four million street dogs in Turkey. Many citizens are afraid of them and consider homeless four-legged animals a problem. Through changes to the Animal Protection Law, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government now wants to reduce the number of stray dogs: existing protective regulations will drop so dogs can be euthanized. Animal advocates across the country are protesting the draft law and demanding it be withdrawn.
The new regulation also caused prolonged sharp discussions in the parliament, but in the end the relevant committee gave its approval. There is also a vote in parliament, where the Justice and Development Party and its ultra-nationalist ally, the Nationalist Action Party, have a majority. I.e. there are no obstacles to the adoption of the law.
Euthanasia for animals?
However, the protests of animal defenders and the opposition do not stop. Killing a lot of stray dogs could not be the solution. In a letter to Recep Erdogan, French actress Brigitte Bardot urged him to withdraw the law. One of Turkey's national swimmers even announced that he would go on hunger strike in protest until the law was withdrawn. Criticism of the project is also directed at the fact that neither the considerations of civil society nor those of veterinarians and opposition parties have been taken into account.
According to the new law, no animal in need of care should be allowed to roam freely on the streets. Dogs suffering from incurable diseases and those that no one wants to adopt must be euthanized. The government initially defined this as "euthanasia". After intense negotiations, the concept was removed from the draft law and it was rewritten, which, however, did not lead to practical changes: "In situations where the negative behavior of an animal cannot be controlled, the veterinarian may decide to euthanize it". it says in the document now.
"Thus no country has achieved anything"
According to animal advocates, this is a "justification" so that all stray dogs can be permanently removed from the streets. The president of the Union of Veterinarians in Turkey, Murat Arslan, believes that killing street dogs is not a final solution. He pleaded for the animals to be castrated, as has already been done with about a quarter of them. "There is not a single country in the world that has solved the problem by killing the dogs," Arslan points out. If the state provided the appropriate opportunity, veterinarians could sterilize ten animals each day.
Gülüz Gündüz from the animal protection organization "Law for Life" points out that slaughtering is actually nothing new, it's just that it's been done differently: "The animals lived quite normally in the neighborhoods. After which, however, they were pushed by the city authorities to the outskirts - where there is neither food nor water for them.
Gündüz sends an emotional warning to politicians: "If you come to our neighborhoods to take away our animals, we will build a wall in front of you. You can't kill these animals without killing us too.
"Turkey has a problem with stray dogs"
Neşe Özkanoğlu of the Animal Rights Center of the Ankara Bar Association warns that the law has the "potential" for the indiscriminate killing of dogs. And she also sees another problem: "This is by no means a law that will enable the control of the animal population, but a regulation that will only deepen social division.
Erdogan defended the law saying: "Turkey has a problem with stray dogs. Our people demand that we solve it. And we can't watch indifferently.
The new law is expected to be implemented by local authorities. But the biggest opposition party - the social democratic Republican People's Party - has already announced that the new regulations will not be implemented in the cities it governs. This applies to about half of the country's cities, including Istanbul and Ankara. But the risks will have to be taken by the municipal employees - as the draft law foresees fines for those of them who do not apply it.
Author: Burak Yunveren