The Turkish parliament began examining a highly controversial law on Sunday, July 28, aimed at removing the country’s approximately 4 million dogs, most of whom are fed by residents, from its streets. The proposed law plans to lock them all in pounds and euthanize some of them, citing in particular an increase in cases of rabies and accidents related to these dogs. Animal rights activists and the opposition at large see it as a means of mass killing these unwanted animals, something the government denies.
2 min
With our correspondent in Ankara, Anne Andlauer
For 20 years, the Türkiye boasts of having one of the best animal protection laws in the world. A law that requires city halls to sterilize and vaccinate stray dogs and release them into the neighborhood where they live. The problem is that this law has never been properly enforced.
Faced with the proliferation of animals and what the government presents as a public health problem, the new law requires town halls no longer to release dogs, but to keep them in the pound until they are adopted, and to euthanize those that ” pose a risk to human life, harmful behavior or contagious disease “.
” Our people want safe streets “, justified President Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party (AKP, Islamic-conservative) and its allies have an absolute majority in the Assembly.
” A massacre »
Animal rights lawyer Tugba Gürsoy of the Ankara Bar Association believes that this formulation paves the way for what she calls ” A massacre » of hundreds of thousands of dogs.
” Harmful behavior, that is to say? Will a dog that barks a lot be judged as such? And what contagious disease? Will dogs with mange, ringworm or a cold be put to the test? Will a dog that has bitten once be killed? This law is full of imprecisions that leave enormous room for maneuver to the town halls. This is the reason why we do not trust the authorities ” she denounces.
The main opposition party, the CHP, winner of the last municipal elections, promises that its elected officials will refuse euthanasia. The law provides for two years in prison for recalcitrant mayors.
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