Under slogans like “Don’t stay silent, say no to the massacre!” Thousands of people demonstrated on Sunday, June 2, 2024 in the Turkish city of Istanbul against a controversial bill that proposes sacrificing stray dogs to stop their proliferation.
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Protesters gathered in Yenikapi Square in the European part of Istanbul and some wore T-shirts with images of cats and dogs. Others held signs of dogs with imploring looks.
Defenders of these animals, of all ages and political persuasions, They opposed an initiative by the ruling AKP Party, which seeks to control a population of four million stray dogs throughout Turkey.according to official estimates.
In 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture said it would be ten million.
Legislation is currently being drafted that would allow them to be captured en masse, sterilized and tagged with a chip, and if not adopted within 30 days, euthanized.
Opponents instead call for true sterilization campaigns and denounce the lack of means to tackle the problem.
“It is not good for animals, it is a murderous law”criticized Sule Giritlioglu, a 27-year-old engineer.
“We believe that cats will be the next target,” he added to the AFP news agency.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged this week that Türkiye had a “stray dog problem that does not exist in any developed country” and cited the increase in rabies cases.
“We have to move on to more radical methods,” the head of state insisted, advocating sterilization and adoption campaigns to avoid “going to the next phase.”
“There is no justice”
Stray dogs and cats They are an integral part of the daily lives of Turks and many people take care of them.
Mert Tuncel, 28, helps animals victims of violence, for example, with donations collected through his Instagram page Arazi_mamadestek.
The young man is sitting on the grass with “Şans” (luck, in Turkish), a dog that was mistreated.
“There is no one to punish this… There is no justice”he declared.
The World Health Organization (WHO), however, considers that Türkiye is a “high risk” country in terms of rabies cases.
In the last five years, at least 55 deaths have been caused by dogs, either from bites or in traffic accidents.
Lack of shelters
A law in force since 2021 obliges municipalities to create shelters, but according to the Animal Rights Federation (Haykonfed), 1,100 of the 1,394 Turkish municipalities do not have any.
In recent months, both the press and social networks have reported on several accidents that shocked the country.
A video recorded this winter in the Asian part of Istanbul shows a dog lunging at an elderly woman, who falls to the ground. Another footage shows severe bites inflicted on a girl in the capital Ankara in December.
But for Emre Onuk, it is a campaign of “bad propaganda”, spread before the municipal elections of March 31.
The images distract public opinion from the “real problem,” the 42-year-old engineer told AFP. “The financing is not used enough,” he said.
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Source: https://www.noticiascaracol.com/mundo/por-proyecto-para-sacrificar-perros-callejeros-en-turquia-miles-de-personas-se-movilizaron-en-contra-cb20
