Image by Martin Bauschke from Pixabay

From Humane Society International:

Recently, the president of Türkiye approved requiring municipalities to remove the country’s estimated 4 million stray dogs from the streets and put them into shelters. Unfortunately, Türkiye lacks adequate shelter space to accommodate large numbers of dogs, with most municipalities having no shelters at all. This means that countless dogs, if not adopted, will die in shelters. A previous law supported a humane approach to managing street dog populations involving spay/neuter and return of dogs to their communities.

The system adopted under the new law will undoubtably involve mass euthanasia and deaths of large numbers of dogs. There are already reports of dog roundups around the country.

Sheltering, mass euthanasia and culling of stray dog populations are neither effective nor humane. A far more effective approach, and the one that HSI employs throughout the world, involves the humane capture, spay/neuter, vaccination, and return of dogs to their home communities.

We encourage the president and Türkiye’s parliament to reconsider the new law, and to instead embrace established management approaches that are humane and efficient in achieving reductions in street dog populations over time. We have offered to provide evidence and expert advice concerning better approaches for managing street dog populations to decision-makers, approaches we know will benefit both the people and animals of Türkiye.

Add your name in support of our message to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Türkiye asking for humane treatment of street dogs and effective solutions to the management of their populations.