Nilgul comes every day to the suburbs of Istanbul to feed stray dogs. There are many people like her in Turkey who care about homeless animals. But now people are alarmed by the new bill.
There are approximately four million stray dogs in the country. The government wants to get everyone off the streets. He refers to the fact that they attack people, cause accidents and spread rabies.
According to the bill, dogs will be placed in a shelter for 30 days. If the animal is not housed within this period, it will be euthanized.
The new document will be presented in parliament in the coming days. The opposition party and activists are against it. It is believed that most dogs will be euthanized. In their opinion, the authorities themselves are to blame for the fact that the animals have proliferated so much, since it was necessary to carry out sterilization more actively.
Animal advocates agree that the problem must be addressed. In Turkey, approximately 260,000 stray dogs are sterilized every year, but this is too few.
Opponents of the bill believe that the government will not be able to implement its plans in the form in which it presents them. For four million dogs, large shelters must be created and many veterinarians must be hired to sterilize them. It also takes a lot of effort to find owners for all these animals. According to activists, this is difficult to achieve.