By The European Times | Created at 2026-07-20 08:56:37 | Updated at 2026-08-04 12:38:58
2 weeks ago
Turkey has managed to remove about 1 million stray dogs from its streets by 2025. This was stated by Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftli, quoted by Balkan Insight, indicating that some important changes have been made to the Animal Protection Law.
Ciftli stated that the “neuter and return” policy no longer works.
Therefore, Turkey is switching to a mixed approach to dealing with stray dogs, in which some of the animals are sent to shelters, but others are euthanized. For now, Turkish authorities have not announced the principle of the distribution.
The changes to the Animal Protection Law date back to 2024 and order that every Turkish municipality must remove dogs from its streets.
They should be sent to shelters, but animals that show aggressive behavior or are terminally ill are euthanized. Turkey is currently building new shelters for stray dogs and hopes to have a total area of 9 million square meters.
A similar approach is in place in Romania, according to which dogs from shelters are euthanized if they are not adopted.
In many provinces, if a dog is not adopted within 14 days, it is killed.
The approach has been in place since 2015, when the problem of street animals worsened in large Romanian cities, and in the same year a small child was bitten to death.
Illustrative photo: pexels-renjith-tomy-pkm-138432405-33339064
