ANKARA, Turkey — Legislators approved Tuesday a new law aimed at removing millions of stray dogs from Turkey’s streets that animal lovers fear will lead to many of the dogs being killed or ending up in neglected, overcrowded shelters.
Some critics also argue that the law will be used to target the opposition, which made huge gains in the country’s latest local elections. The legislation includes penalties for mayors who fail to carry out its provisions, and the main opposition party has pledged not to implement the law.
Deputies in the Turkish Grand National Assembly approved the legislation following a tense, marathon overnight session as the government pushed to have it passed before the summer recess. Demonstrations in cities across Turkey saw thousands call for the scrapping of an article that would allow some stray animals to be euthanized. Opposition lawmakers, animal welfare groups and others have dubbed the bill the “massacre law.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who now needs to sign the measure into law, thanked his ruling party and allied parties’ legislators who voted in favor of the law following an “intense and tiring” session.
“Despite the opposition’s provocations and campaigns based on lies and distortions, the National Assembly once again listened to the people, refusing to ignore the cries of the silent majority,” he said.
The government estimates that around 4 million stray dogs roam Turkey’s streets and rural areas. Although many are harmless, a growing number are congregating in packs, and several people have been attacked. The country’s large stray cat population is not a focus of the bill.
In Istanbul’s Sishane Square, hundreds gathered and issued a defiant message to the government. “Your massacre law is just a piece of paper for us,” the organizers told the crowd. “We will write the law on the streets. Life and solidarity, not hatred and hostility, will win.”
Animal lovers in the capital Ankara protested outside municipal offices. To whistles and jeers, a statement was read: “We are warning the government again and again, stop the law. Do not commit this crime against this country.”
Protests organized by political parties and animal welfare groups were also held in cities across Europe, where there were warnings that the law could dissuade tourists from visiting Turkey.
Turkey’s main opposition party said it would seek the law’s cancellation at the country’s Supreme Court.
“You have made a law that is morally, conscientiously and legally broken. You cannot wash your hands of blood,” Murat Emir, a senior deputy with the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, said Sunday night in parliament. He questioned why the bill called for healthy and unaggressive animals to be collected if they were not to be killed.
Others blamed the growth in the stray canine population on a failure to implement previous regulations, which required stray dogs to be caught, neutered or spayed, and returned to where they were found.
The Humane Society International said in a statement that it had written to Erdogan to raise concerns that the law will cause “unnecessary suffering and death to countless animals in a short-term fix that won’t deliver a long-term solution.”
Ali Ozkaya, of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, described the bill as a “demand of the nation.”
