Didim becomes the first district in Turkey to forbid animal experimentation

Duvar English

The district of Didim in Turkey's Western Anatolian province of Aydın made an official decision on December 4 that stipulated they would not allow animals under the protection of the municipality to be sent to experimental laboratories, according to a report in the Bianet news outlet on Thursday. 

According to the decision, no animals that live in the street or in shelters will be sent to laboratories for experimental or testing purposes. The municipality has declared itself as the first in Turkey that will not conduct experiments on animals. 

“In Turkey there are already licensed and official institutions that breed animals for experimental purposes. For the local administration to send animals that are in hospitals or trying to maintain their lives on the street to laboratories is something that the conscience of the society cannot accept,” said Didim mayor Ahmet Deniz Atabay. 

“We know that some municipalities that were responsible for protecting domestic animals were sending them to laboratories for experimental purposes. For example, the administration of [Kayseri's] Erciyes University confirmed that a doctor, for the purpose of his dissertation, was procuring dogs from the city municipality animal hospitals. Our purpose in this project is to prevent protected animals from being sent to laboratories by local administrations,” said Yağmur Özgür Güven, president of the Anti-Vivisection Association.