Animal Action Greece is deeply concerned about the recent adoption by the Turkish parliament of amendments to the country’s animal welfare law which will mandate local authorities to collect and shelter the country’s stray dogs. 

The law will also allow municipalities to euthanize dogs for certain reasons. 

“The long-term mass sheltering of stray animals will cause serious suffering for Turkiye’s stray dogs, cost municipalities huge amounts of money and will prove inefficient as a method of population control” said Joseph Nhan O’Reilly, Animal Action Greece CEO. 

The new legislation represents a shift from the animal rights policies that have been in force in Türkiye until now. In 2004, legislation was enacted that prohibited the slaughter of stray animals and instituted the current model. Under this rule, municipalities have to collect stray animals, vaccinate, neuter and microchip them, and then release them in the same spot where they were found.   

It is widely agreed that the only way to humanely and sustainably control stray dog populations is by implementing a multifaceted approach to population management, with a focus on CNVR method: Catch – Neuter – Vaccinate – Return, as set out in Türkiye’s previous animal welfare law. 

“But to be effective these approaches need to be implemented at scale and sustained. Unfortunately, implementation of CNVR in Türkiye has been fragmented, stop start and limited in intensity and has subsequently proven ineffectual,” said Mr. Nhan-Oreilly.  

“Turkiye’s dogs must not be made to pay the price of failure my municipalities that have not implemented their responsibilities to date.” 

At Animal Action Greece, we strongly believe in and promote humane population management strategies that have proven effective in many regions.  

Like in Turkiye, the implementation of humane cat and dog population programmes across Greece is completely inadequate. 

Greece has good legislation which is largely not being implemented by municipalities 

We urgently need to generate the political commitment in both countries to design and implement community-based dog and cat care and management programmes which are humane and effective. 

In contrast, if implemented the amended the law in Turkiye will cause huge suffering and prove entirely ineffective in manage the country’s street dogs. We consequently urge the Turkiye government to reinstate the old law and commit to supporting local governments across the country to implement it on a sustained basis, with sufficient intensity.