Killing of stray animals Turkey sets its sights on dogs 05/21/2025 from Joscha Duhme

If you've ever been on vacation in Turkey, you're sure to have come across stray dogs on a walk. In many places, the animals are part of the cityscape. It is estimated that four million dogs live on the streets in Turkey - without a home. In the middle of towns and villages, they feed on scraps of food and look for safe places to sleep. In most cases, no one provides medical care for the dogs. For them, every day is a struggle for survival anyway. But since 2024, the situation for stray animals in Turkey has become even worse.

On the initiative of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has introduced an amendment to the law. "It is a massive step backwards for animal welfare. Since then, Turkey has been vehemently cracking down on stray dogs," reports Lisa Hoth-Zimak, pet welfare officer at the German Animal Welfare Federation. Local authorities have to place them in animal shelters.

Since the law came into force, there has been an increasing amount of information and images documenting the cruel treatment of dogs in Turkey. The animals are brutally captured. "We know the situation from other countries: you can hardly speak of animal shelters if four million stray dogs are to be distributed among the 110,000 or so places. The conditions are devastating," reports Hoth-Zimak. There are even photos of dead stray dogs circulating on the Internet. There are also reports of mistreated animals and a radical crackdown on animal rights activists. "Of course, we always have to critically scrutinize the footage. Not everything that is supposed to show scenes from Turkey actually comes from there."

The German Animal Welfare Federation had tried to prevent the change in the law. Together with its European umbrella organization, the Eurogroup for Animals, it argued for an animal-friendly solution. It contacted the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the German Embassy in Turkey, the Turkish Embassy in Germany and the German-Turkish parliamentary group in the Bundestag. None of the bodies contacted responded to the demands of the association and numerous Turkish animal rights activists.

"Instead of reacting to animal welfare arguments, Turkey has even tightened up the regulations and the way dogs are handled," explains the expert. She is in contact with the Turkish animal welfare association Datça Dogs. It is a member of the German Animal Welfare Federation. The team there reports that municipalities face penalties if they do not implement the law. There is talk of the equivalent of 2,000 euros for every unowned dog on the street. The attempt to arrange a meeting with Turkey's tourism minister was unsuccessful. As the tourism industry there recorded satisfactory figures in 2024, there was no interest on the Turkish side. The German Animal Welfare Federation is therefore calling for people to avoid vacations in Turkey for the time being.

The Turkish government knows that it can also reduce the population of stray animals in an animal-friendly and sustainable way. The law before the amendment provided for the principle of "catch, neuter, release". "The fact that it could not prevent dogs from multiplying to such an extent in Turkey is due to the fact that the law was not consistently implemented and financially supported there," explains Hoth-Zimak. Yet the concept can be successful, effective and sustainable. The German Animal Welfare Federation has been demonstrating this for over 20 years through its work in its Animal Welfare Center Odessa in Ukraine and, more recently, in a model project in Romania.

The number of stray dogs is not effectively reduced if the authorities catch and keep the animals or even have them killed. "On the one hand, it is never possible to catch all the dogs at once. And on the other hand, free-roaming or abandoned animals from private owners are largely responsible for the constant supply. This is not taken into account," says Hoth-Zimak.

In May 2025, the Turkish Constitutional Court rejected the opposition party CHP's appeal for annulment of the law on the treatment of stray dogs. In order to help the stray animals in Turkey and other countries, the German Animal Welfare Federation continues to campaign for their protection across borders. To this end, the association works closely with local and international animal welfare organizations. It also conducts and promotes educational work. It is currently seeking an exchange with the Turkish veterinary profession and continues to focus on dialog with politicians. The animal rights activists are campaigning relentlessly and emphatically for animals from private households to be neutered and for stray animals to be caught, neutered, vaccinated and then released back into their usual territory. This is also recommended by institutions such as the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health. So that the killing of dogs in Turkey comes to an end and the animals no longer have to suffer on the streets.