Big meeting against animal slaughter

Simultaneous protest rallies in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir

On September 29, animal rights defenders protested against the political political pover's new law that recommends killing stray dogs to municipalities in Turkey's three largest cities; They came together at the Great Meeting in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. "NO to collection, closure, killing", "The massacre law should be withdrawn", "Constitutional Court: cancel it!" They shouted their words.

Starting from the end of 2021, the political power declared war against stray dogs on the grounds of "protecting children against dog attacks": "There is no place for stray dogs on the streets," it said. It was proposing a law that would include "collecting stray dogs, confining them to shelters for a while, and if no one likes them and adopting them within this period, they should be 'put to sleep' - that is, poisoned and killed."

NO to collecting, closing, killing!

The political pover, which had suffered a heavy defeat in the last municipal elections, wanted to leave the implementation of this unethical practice to the responsibility of municipalities. Heavy sanctions were to be imposed on the municipalities that did not fulfill this.

A small segment of the society that is pro-radical violence, encouraged by this initiative of the political pover, began to carry out their own mini-massacres, poisoning dozens of dogs or beating them to death with sticks. (See: Brief news - Massacre law) But the overwhelming majority of society, including the majority of supporters of the political pover, met the initiative with anger

Still, the political pover did not step back. The law in question was passed on August 2, to spite everyone. On August 15, the opposition submitted the law to the Constitutional Court with requests for "cancellation" and "suspension of enforcement" of the law. Although the words "killing" or "putting to sleep" are no longer in the text of the law. However, it is estimated that there are a total of 10 million stray dogs in the country: This means that local shelters can only cover a very small portion of stray dogs, with both their real and potential capacities. In this case, municipalities are faced with the choice of either breaking the law or contributing to a horrific animal slaughter.