Turkish parliament passes controversial stray dog bill amid huge protests
The Turkish parliament has passed the bill aiming to round up millions of stray dogs, and possibly killing them, with the votes of the ruling alliance deputies. Animal rights advocates have been protesting the bill for days, as the main opposition CHP said they would take the issue to the Constitutional Court.
Duvar English
The Turkish parliament on July 30 passed the controversial stray dog bill, presented by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Out of 594 deputies, 500 of them participated in the voting. 275 deputies voted for the enactment of the bill and 224 voted against it with one deputy abstaining.
The bill comes with 17 articles as the fifth article paves the way for the killing of stray dogs.
With the new regulation, a veterinarian may decide to kill the stray dogs, dubbed as “euthanasia”, when “the diseases that cause pain and suffering to animals or that cannot be cured,” when “their behavior poses a danger to the life and health of humans and animals and their negative behavior cannot be controlled,” and “for the prevention or eradication of an acute infectious animal disease or in cases that pose a risk to human health.”
After the voting, the Parliament has gone into recess until Oct. 1.
The opposition deputies said “Neither history nor humanity will forgive those who voted ‘yes’. This is a regulation that will go down in human history with shame. Shelters are centers of death. Millions of animals die there, they cannot tolerate this.”
The ruling AKP Group Deputy Chair Abdullah Güler claimed, “There is no killing in this law, it's a lie! There is ownership, there is encouragement.”
The bill is charging municipalities with getting strays off the street and into shelters until they are adopted. The municipalities will also be obliged to establish shelters and carry out "rehabilitation" procedures until December 31, 2028.
40 percent treasury aid has also been introduced for shelter construction, improvement, and rehabilitation works to the municipalities.
AKP deputy and former Agriculture and Forestry Minister Vahit Kirişçi said there are currently 322 shelters with a capacity of 105,000, and claimed that municipalities can build shelters to host four million stray dogs until 2028.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel said they will take the bill to the Constitutional Court.
During the discussion of the bill in the Parliament, the opposition deputies wore red-painted gloves, implying blood.
Animal rights advocates have been protesting the bill for days, deeming it a “massacre law.”