Turkey’s ruling party introduced a bill to parliament on Friday to catch millions of stray dogs and put them in shelters. At shelters, dogs will either be put up for adoption or euthanized.
This new bill worries animal welfare organizations, who believe mass neutering would be better than locking dogs up. The proposed legislation changes the current trap-neuter-release (TNR) method to a trap-neuter-hold/adopt/kill approach.
Turkey has about 4 million stray dogs. Under the new regulation, captured dogs will be taken to shelters, where they will stay until they are adopted.
Aggressive dogs, those with untreatable diseases, or dogs whose adoption is prohibited by local authorities would be killed.
Impact on dogs
“Confining animals to enclosed spaces means systematic torture and death,” said the Turkish animal welfare organization Hayvanlara Adalet Derneği (HAD) (Justice for Animals Association) in response to the draft bill.
HAD stated that the cities failed to implement laws, and now dogs are being punished for it: “The law, which has been in place since 2004 and mandates the ‘trap-neuter-vaccinate-release’ method, has not been properly implemented by municipalities for the past 20 years.”
The government is so focused on changing the current law instead of ensuring city authorities follow the existing regulations, HAD said. “The problem lies not in the law itself but in the municipalities’ failure to perform their duties.”
Shelter capacity
Currently, municipalities must neuter, vaccinate, and then return street dogs to their original locations. There are 322 animal shelters in Turkey, with a total capacity of 105,000 dogs. HAD said the proposed law not realistic and will cost more than the current TNR law.
“Moreover, three-quarters of municipalities do not even have shelters,” HAD added.
“When municipalities see their duties regarding animals as a burden, the result is the confinement, systematic torture, and death of animals in places labeled as shelters. The option of isolation in such conditions should no longer be on the agenda.”
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