Turkey‘s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has issued a directive giving clear instructions to the governors of the country’s 81 provinces for municipalities to immediately start removing stray dogs from their streets, following concerns over repeated attacks by these animals that have resulted in several deaths.
According to Turkish media reports, a letter sent to provincial governors and signed by Minister İbrahim Yumaklı reminds them that the Animal Protection Law Amendment Law came into force after being published in the Official Gazette on 2 August 2024, and that the same applies to the Animal Protection Implementation Regulation, published on 13 December 2024.
The letter points out that, while the new law gives municipalities with a population of more than 25,000 inhabitants a deadline of 31 December 2028 to create new shelters for stray animals and improve the conditions of existing shelters, the provisions concerning the collection of animals and their transfer to shelters, including the transfer of stray dogs to shelters, came into force from the moment the law was published.
Thus, Article 14 of the new law prohibits the housing of stray animals collected by municipalities in a place other than a shelter or refuge, nor does it allow dogs housed in these shelters to be returned to the street even if their recovery process has been completed. Therefore, waiting until 2028 to remove stray dogs from the streets is, to all intents and purposes, considered a violation of the law already in force, the ministry warns.
Fines of almost €2,000 per animal and prison sentences
According to the legislation passed in 2024, the removal of stray animals will be carried out mainly in areas where there are complaints from citizens, documented cases of attacks, or risk of transmission of infectious diseases such as rabies. If the dogs captured and transferred to shelters pose a threat to the life or health of people or other animals, exhibit dangerous behaviour, or suffer from a contagious or incurable disease, they cannot be adopted under any circumstances.
The warning issued by the Turkish government to provincial governors and their respective municipalities comes in response to some interpretations of the law that municipalities had until 2028 to begin removing stray animals, and reminds local governments that they are obliged to begin removing them immediately, and that abandoning them on the street constitutes a violation of the law ‘subject to a fine of 71,965 liras (1,940 euros) per animal’.
In addition, Art. 1 of the law states that mayors and council members of municipalities who do not devote the necessary resources to the removal of stray dogs or use the money for other purposes, can be sentenced to between 6 months and 2 years in prison.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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