In recent media reports, the long-discussed issue of attacks by stray dogs has come to the fore again. A commission was established within the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to create solution proposals. It was decided that representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministries of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change would also be included in the commission.
Commenting on the decision to establish a commission to Halide Tonga from Elips Haber, Turkish Veterinary Association Central Council President Prof. Dr. Murat Arslan said that veterinarians should take part in the commission as the main solution interlocutor. Reacting to the fact that they were not invited to the commission, Prof. Dr. Arslan said, “This law has already existed for 15 years. This law has not been implemented. There is an important issue; the professionals in this field are veterinarians. The professional organization for this work is the Veterinary Medical Association. The warnings I have been making for a long time did not mislead us, we expected that we would get negative results. At that time, they tried to do it without taking the opinions of professional organizations. A commission is currently being established. But the opinion of the Turkish Veterinary Association is not asked. We are the main addressees of this problem. "We were not invited to these commissions," he said.
“What we fear is rabies cases”
Reminding that in places where stray animals are planned to be collected, the animals will be in close contact with wildlife and this may cause rabies cases. Dr. Arslan said: “The issue we are actually afraid of today is rabies and it originates from wildlife. The majority of the rabies cases we encounter in Turkey are caused by animals in the wild. Be careful about the quarantined places, they are all villages. Because there animals are intertwined with wildlife. Without thinking about these, let's turn them around and put the animals here, but when placing them here, both the welfare level and the neutering situation should be considered. I wonder if they will neuter it and put it in or just place it in these areas? Tomorrow or the day after, you will see that these animals harm each other because we cannot control them in such a large area. In fact, we can see this return with more negative examples compared to the events that the public reacts to today. This may cause the country's rulers to come back with greater reactions. That's why it needs to be considered.”