The ruling Turkish party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan submitted to the parliament today a controversial bill on the management of the country's large population of stray dogs, which critics consider inhumane.
Critics fear the proposed law will result in dogs being locked up in cramped shelters and could lead to many being killed.
Animal rights activists and those who call for the introduction of measures to make the streets safe from wild dogs have opposing views on the bill. Erdogan, the leader of the Justice and Development Party, says estimates show there are four million stray dogs in Turkey.
The bill, which was submitted to parliament, is a watered-down version of the original proposal, which provided for stray dogs to be taken to shelters and euthanized if they are not adopted within 30 days.
The proposal, which was not submitted to parliament, caused a public uproar, with animal rights activists claiming it would result in the mass killing of stray dogs.
Ruling party MP Abdullah Guler told reporters that the revised bill calls for stray dogs to be removed from the streets and placed in shelters, where they will be sterilized.
The proposal, according to Guler, foresees that dogs that are at risk of rabies, that show aggressive behavior and cannot be rehabilitated, will be euthanized.
Municipalities would be required to improve conditions in existing shelters, and people would be encouraged to adopt dogs, Guler added.
Erdogan's party and its nationalist and Islamist allies have a majority in parliament, indicating the law will pass. The date when MPs will vote on the law has not been set.
The Association of Safe Streets and the Defense of the Right to Life, which advocates the removal of all stray dogs from the streets, states that 65 people have died in Turkey since 2022 as a result of street dog attacks.
This year, the government promised to tackle the issue after stray dogs seriously injured a child in the capital, Ankara.
Current law requires that stray dogs be captured, sterilized and returned to the place where they were found, but a failure to enforce those regulations in recent years has led to a sharp increase in the number of feral dogs, according to animal welfare groups. Those groups argue that adequate enforcement of regulations would be sufficient to control the dog population.
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