Ruling AKP presents bill to remove stray dogs from streets, euthanize 'aggressive and sick'

Reuters & Duvar English

Turkey's ruling party presented a bill to parliament on July 13 that aims to round up millions of stray dogs, a plan that has alarmed animal lovers who say a mass neutering campaign would be a better solution than locking dogs up in shelters.

Under the draft law proposed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), municipalities would be charged with getting strays off the street and into shelters until they are adopted. Aggressive dogs or any with untreatable diseases would be put down.

"Streets are not a space for dogs to live. But they have the right to live in more qualified shelters," Abdullah Güler, chair of the AKP's parliamentary group, told reporters.

An earlier version of the bill, which was leaked to Turkish media months ago, said all street dogs could be put down within a month but the provision was removed after public outcry, including from opposition politicians.

The population of street dogs in Turkey is estimated to be 4 million, and 2.5 million dogs have been neutered in the past 20 years by municipalities, according to the draft bill.

Under current legislation, municipalities have to neuter and vaccinate all street dogs and leave them where they were found following treatment.

There are currently 322 animal shelters with a capacity to host a total of 105,000 dogs, according to the bill.

The draft bill also requires all municipalities to spend at least 0.3% of their annual budget on animal rehabilitation services and building shelters.

Municipalities will be given time until 2028 to build new shelters and improve current shelters, the bill says.

The main apposition Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmaker Türker Ateş criticized the bill for putting all the responsibility to the municipalities and added, "If the proposal becomes law, animals will pay the price for the government's incompetence."