Statement on Animal Protection Law Amendment in Turkey

A Turkish parliamentary commission is currently discussing a bill that will make way for the killing of stray animals.

Statement on Animal Protection Law Amendment in Turkey

Paylaş

A Turkish parliamentary commission is currently discussing a bill that will make way for the killing of stray animals.

Several MPs from the ruling party AKP have proposed an amendment to the Animal Protection Law in Turkey. The bill aims to collect stray animals from the streets and kill the ones who are aggressive, have an infectious or incurable disease, are prohibited from adopting, or threaten public safety, through euthanasia.

Since the terms “aggressive” and “public safety” are very broad and open-ended, and the bill does not give a proper definition, if it passes a large number of cats and dogs will be killed. 

Three of the 17 articles in the bill were debated and passed by Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Affairs Commission on Wednesday, July 17. The rest of the articles will be discussed on Monday, July 22. 

The main ground of this bill is safety. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party claim the large number of stray dogs poses a risk to public safety. It is estimated that 4 million stray dogs live in Turkey. 

Even though the number of dog attacks is not what they are made to be, there has been an organized effort in recent years to make the dogs look beastly. A significant amount of fake news is released and some fake accounts on social media spread them with demands to remove dogs from the streets. Safe Streets Association claims at least 65 people died of dog attacks in the last 1,5 years. However, animal rights activists suggest this cannot be known for certain. 

AKP claims that the current legislation has not solved the population issue. This law which has been in effect since 2004, obliges local authorities to capture, neuter, and release the animals where they are taken.

However, this has not been implemented effectively. According to the bill, a maximum of 342,879 animals are neutered every year, which corresponds to approximately 8,5% of the population. And to take the population under control, 70% of the entire population should be neutered. Clearly, the municipalities have not fulfilled their duties and this bill tries to make the animals pay for this.  

For 20 years the Animal Protection Law in effect, AKP has ruled the country and most municipalities. But with the local elections in March this year, the majority of municipalities are now governed by opposition parties. Since the care and control of the stay animals fall under the responsibility of local authorities, some believe these election results are one of the reasons behind the timing of the bill. 

The bill also requires the municipalities to build an animal shelter or improve the conditions of the existing one by 2028. When the municipalities do not spend the money for shelters, and capturing and keeping the animals, the bill proposes the mayor and other officials will be punished with six months to two years in prison. According to the current law, municipalities are obliged to build a temporary shelter for the neutering, treatment, and vaccination of strays. But the number of the shelters is still very low.

Another claim put forward by the bill is the number of rabies cases is on the rise because of strays. According to stated estimates for 2023, 437,601 contacts with rabies risk have occurred. However, this number includes scratching, and saliva contact with an animal, contact with potentially infectious material, or the number of vaccinations a volunteer working in a shelter receives as a precaution. According to the Health Ministry, actual rabies cases in humans are one or two annually, and the number of cases in both companion and wild animals is declining. 

Even though the population is given as one of the main reasons behind the bill, it does not address breeding and trading animals. There is no control over the breeding and selling of companion animals and leaving pet animals is only punished with monetary fines. Globally, abandoning pet animals is considered the root cause of the stray population. 

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2,714,366 pets were imported in the last five years. If these imports and breeding in the country are not stopped, more and more animals will be abandoned and they keep reproducing on the streets. If the bill becomes law, a growing number of animals will be killed, and this circulation will continue endlessly.

Animal rights advocates and veterinarians were not allowed to join the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Commission meeting on Wednesday, July 17, even though their names were submitted by MPs beforehand. 

The opposition MPs and NGOs severely criticized this decision since people who have expertise on the matter were not consulted. Furthermore, some of the scientific data cited in the bill is outdated. 

When the committee chair Vahit Kirişçi demanded them to exit to room, the meeting began tumultuously. It started around 2 pm on Wednesday and continued until almost 8 am on Thursday. 

Just before the meeting began, when animal rights activists and MPs were trying to enter the meeting room, they were pushed by police officers in the Parliament building.

Even though other NGO representatives were not allowed, officials from Safe Streets Association, an organization campaigning for the removal of all stray dogs from the streets, attended the meeting. 

Moreover, some children who are claimed to be the survivors of dog attacks were brought to the Parliament. They did not join the meeting, but a mother of a child who was killed by a truck when running away from dogs attended. Her presence in the room was met with reaction by opposition MPs stating that AKP is taking advantage of a child’s death to pass the bill.

The opposition parties outside the AKP alliance, oppose the law. And according to a recent survey by Konda, 85% of the population is against the euthanasia of stray animals.

During the meeting several MPs criticized the lack of scientific evidence, the fact that the current law has not been implemented effectively, and the use of the term “euthanasia”. They stated that it is not about one’s decision to end their life, but a massacre. One MP from the Republican People’s Party said this bill would bring genocide.

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