Politics
Turkey plans to regulate large stray dog population, raising fears of massacres
ANKARA, Türkiye (AP) Turkish invoice A bill aimed at regulating the country's millions of stray dogs moved closer to becoming law on Wednesday, with animal rights activists fearing many of them would be killed or end up in neglected and overcrowded shelters.
Although some continue to ignore it, Turkey has a stray dog problem, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling party proposed the bill, told lawmakers after a parliamentary committee approved the text late Tuesday. The plenum will hold a final vote in the coming days.
The government estimates that there are about 4 million stray dogs roaming the streets and rural areas of Turkey. While most are harmless, a growing number are congregating in packs and many people have been attacked in Istanbul and elsewhere. The country's well-known stray cat population is not targeted by the bill.
Erdogan stressed that stray dogs attack children, adults, the elderly and other animals. They attack flocks of sheep and goats and cause traffic accidents.
The bill provides that municipalities will collect stray dogs and house them in shelters where they will be sterilized. Dogs that are suffering, terminally ill, pose a health risk to humans or are aggressive will be euthanized.
Municipalities would be required to build dog shelters or improve living conditions in existing shelters by 2028. Mayors who fail to fulfill their responsibilities to control stray dogs would face imprisonment of six months to two years. Fines for people who abandon pets would increase from 2,000 lire ($60) to 60,000 lire ($1,800).
Animal rights activists fear that some municipalities are killing dogs because they are sick, rather than allocating resources to shelter them.
“Since there are not enough places in shelters in Turkey, there are very few, the way is open to the slaughter (of stray animals), said veterinarian Turkan Ceylan. We, animal rights activists, know very well that this means death.
Ceylan said dogs are at risk of contracting diseases in shelters and in vehicles used to round up strays. No animal that enters a shelter leaves healthy, she said.
Current regulations require stray dogs to be captured, sterilized and returned to where they were found. But the lack of enforcement of these regulations has caused the dog population to explode, according to animal rights groups. They believe that proper enforcement of existing regulations would be enough to control the population.
The government denies that the bill would lead to mass culling. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc told reporters on Wednesday that anyone who kills stray animals without reason would be punished.
Meanwhile, the main opposition party, which won key municipalities in local elections in March, claims Erdogan's government would use the law to target opposition mayors.
Murat Pinar, who heads an association that campaigns for measures to protect streets from stray dogs, says at least 75 people, including 44 children, have been killed as a result of attacks or traffic accidents caused by dogs since 2022. That was the year his 9-year-old daughter, Mahra, was hit by a truck after fleeing two aggressive dogs.
At public meetings held last week on the bill, representatives of some nongovernmental organizations were barred from attending the debates. Activists gathered in parks to demand the withdrawal of what they call the massacre law.
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Ayse Wieting in Istanbul contributed.
Susan Fraser, Associated Press
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