Turkey holds a tense debate on a bill to control stray dogs. It's raising fears of a mass culling

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Turkish parliamentary commission began a tense debate Wednesday on a bill to manage the country’s large stray dog population that animal advocates fear could result in the widespread killing of the animals.

The legislation, submitted to parliament by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, is pitting groups advocating for safer streets free of the feral dogs against animal rights activists who are demanding the withdrawal of the bill.

Erdogan has stated that approximately 4 million stray animals are wandering the streets and rural areas of Turkey. While many of them are docile, an increasing numbers of dogs are seen roaming in packs and numerous people have been attacked.

The legislation being debated in parliament’s agriculture and rural affairs commission is a diluted version of an initial proposal that would have required the strays to be rounded up, housed in shelters and euthanized if they are not adopted within 30 days.

That proposal, which was leaked to the media, had ignited a public uproar, with animal rights activists arguing it would result in the mass extermination of unadopted dogs.

The revised proposal forces municipalities to remove the stray dogs from the streets and place them into shelters where they would be neutered and spayed. Dogs that are sick, believed to have rabies or exhibiting aggressive behavior would be euthanized.

Municipalities would also be required to build dog shelters or improve conditions in existing shelters by 2028.

The revised bill has failed to ease concerns, with activists arguing that certain municipalities may opt for the easy solution of conducting a mass culling of the stray animals instead of allocating resources toward shelters.

The parliament’s agriculture and rural affairs commission meeting began tumultuously when the committee chair demanded that media, NGO representatives and other observers exit the room, citing insufficient space to accommodate everyone. The meeting was later moved to a larger room.

Meanwhile, activists staged a protest in a park close to the Turkish Grand National Assembly for a second day despite the rain, shouting: “withdraw, withdraw, withdraw the legislation!” and “we won’t allow a massacre.”

The center-left, main opposition Republican People’s Party and other smaller parties oppose the bill. Erdogan’s ruling party and its nationalist allies, however, hold a majority in parliament, and the bill is likely to pass when it reaches the full assembly for final approval.

A report released by the Safe Streets and Defense of the Right to Life Association, an organization campaigning for the removal of all stray dogs from the streets, says that 65 people have died in street dog attacks since 2022.

Erdogan has said at least 55 people also were killed in the past five years in more than 3,500 traffic accidents that were caused by cars swerving to avoid strays. He also has warned that the dog population increases the risk of rabies.

The government promised to tackle the issue earlier this year after a child was severely injured when attacked by dogs in the capital Ankara.

Existing regulations requires stray dogs to be caught, neutered and spayed, and returned to the spot where they were found. But a failure to implement those rules over the past years has caused the feral dog population to explode, animal rights groups say. They argue that proper implementation of the existing regulations would be sufficient to control the population.