Please Stop Animal Protection Law Draft!

We Do not Want the Massacre Law, We Defend the Right to Life!

In the process of accelerating the studies and discussions on the Turkey’s Animal Protection Law No. 5199, which took place in 2004 within the framework of the Harmonisation in the Context of European Community Law, advocates of animal rights held simultaneous protests in Turkey on the 1st of July. The purpose of this action and its declaration was to withdraw the drafts with provisions that would cause the violations to increase implicitly.

To explain these briefly;

Animals killed for experiments, hunting, and making food are included only in the context of welfare under "protection" law. "Welfare" is an extremely dangerous word, because we call the concept of "welfare" that expresses the mental quality of the animals that will be served to human service.

According to the existing law, animals taken by the local government for neutering and vaccination are released to their living area after these procedures. However, according to the draft, animals will be released to the habitats where they are taken, provided that those are not located near places of worship, education institutions, health institutions, schools, parks. This means that animals will be picked up and left to the mountain, which is the only place where these institutions do not exist.

The provision that a neutering centre and an animal shelter will be built in the areas with a population of over 100,000 indicates that there is no work for animals there, even if the population is 90,000. Our experiences show that thousands of animals are going to die.

There is also no positive development in the labelling of some dog breed as "dangerous and prohibited breeds" and in the practice of victimising animals. Likewise, we do not see the plan of putting a chip on cats and dogs applicable in terms of the official point of view of the poor approach to animals and conservation laws.

This article is also misleading in the draft of the law presented in the title of prohibiting the sale of animals in the pet shops. Because sales will continue through the catalogue. Under the counter production, which is never going to stop, will continue. The sale of animals is strictly against the principles of the right to life of animals.

There is no one who does not know that the approach of the municipalities to the animals has been "secretly picking up, killing, poisoning and destroying" for years. There is no direct regulation on violations of local governments in the drafts.

It is interesting to note that animal abandonment is punishable; a punishment for abandoning animals exists already in the present law.

It is also worrying that some points have been left on the board in the draft and it has been said that regulation will be regulated. Because regulations are the principles of implementation and violations are often the result of regulations.

As a result, the draft is not different from the law which became obsolete in the previous period.

There is no protection law that does not cover all animals. It can not be included in a protection law, "how the cows and the sheep will be cut, shredded and turned into food before they become stinking". It can not be a law of protection that leaves a rabbit or a mice for an experiment on a metal table for hours on whatever reason and leaves it to human compassion. There can not be an effective animal protection law which obviously can not fight against to a Hunting Law that regulates how a deer or a fox can be killed at an appropriate time.

In a nutshell, we will try to ensure that the authorities move in the same direction and clarity in this process, in which we clearly state our demands in order to speak of a real protection law. This depends on the high support of the public. 

Bildiriyi Destekleyenler / Manifesto Signers

Ali Uçarman	İstanbul	Tıp Hekimi
Animal Liberation Press Office	İstanbul	Aktivist Grup
Ayşe Mergenci	İstanbul	Biyolog
Barış Gün	Mardin	Araştırmacı / Tasarımcı
Begüm Taktak	İstanbul	Mali Müşavir
Birhan Erkutlu	Antalya/Alakır Vadisi	Aktivist
Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Hayvan Hakları Topluluğu	İstanbul	Aktivist Grup
Canan Apari	İstanbul
Cansu Eylül Yapıcı
Cihan Canbolat	Kayseri	Öğrenci
Ebru Arıman	İstanbul	TVD Yönetim Kurulu Başkanı
Esin Erben	İstanbul	Araştırmacı / Aktivist
Esra Erben	İstanbul	Editör / Aktivist
Filiz Mungan	Bursa	İç Mimar
Gün Zileli	İstanbul	Yazar
Güzide Erden	İstanbul	Mühendis
Hülya Yalçın	İstanbul	Avukat
İlkay Akkaya	İstanbul	Sanatçı
İmren Usta	Artvin	Öğrenci
Kerem Başkaya	İstanbul	Öğrenci
Mehtap Tüysüz	İstanbul	İşletmeci
Pınar Dağ	İstanbul	Öğretim Görevlisi
Sarah Pavia	Malta	Aktivist
Seda Arığ	İstanbul	Yönetici Asistanı
Selin Kale	Bursa	İnşaat Mühendisi
Selver Sezen Kutup	İstanbul	Öğrenci
Serhat Yurtgüzel	İstanbul	Çiftçi
Sevim Gözay	İstanbul	Gazeteci
Sivil Toplumcu	İstanbul	Sivil Toplumcu
Tuğba Pınar Günal	Antalya/Alakır Vadisi	Aktivist
Ünsal Arık	Berlin	Sporcu
Yasemin Avdan	İstanbul	Aktivist
Zeynep Gizem Haspolat	İstanbul	Araştırma Görevlisi
Zilan Duru	İstanbul	Oyuncu
Zülal Kalkandelen	İstanbul	Gazeteci / Yazar