Comment from the German Animal Welfare Association
Bonn. Despite massive protests from animal lovers, the Turkish parliament approved a controversial article of law on June 29th to simplify the killing of street dogs in the future. Ownerless dogs are to disappear from the streets in Turkey and – the German Animal Welfare Association fears – be brought to animal shelters en masse. While an initial draft still envisaged the killing of dogs that are not rehomed after 30 days, this is now off the table. However, sick and aggressive dogs should be able to be put down. Luca Secker, specialist for pets at the German Animal Welfare Association, commented on this: “The law that has been passed is and remains a massive step backwards for Turkey in terms of animal welfare. We are appalled and disappointed that Turkey has chosen this path, even though the previous law on 'catch, neuter, release' offered an animal-friendly and sustainable alternative to reduce the street animal population. However, Turkey has not consistently implemented this and has not provided financial support, so that the proliferation of dogs has never been adequately prevented.
We know from Romania, for example, that catching or even killing dogs does not lead to a reduction in the population of dogs living in the wild. The dogs that remain on the streets will continue to multiply and quickly fill “gaps” in the population, especially since dogs that have been caught – even friendly animals – are no longer allowed to be released.
With only about 110,000 places in animal shelters and an estimated four million street dogs, the animal shelter capacity will quickly be exhausted. Animal rights activists in Turkey therefore fear, probably rightly, that the passage in the law that allows the killing of aggressive and sick dogs can be used as a loophole. Because when a dog is classified as aggressive or sick and euthanized is not precisely defined and is probably decided solely by the person carrying out the process on site.”