“Treat Animals as Living Beings” – Turkish Bill

Details on a Turkish landmark bill have been revealed. It aims to reform the rights of animals and ameliorate their lives to co-exist in our ecosystem. This bill will be discussed by the Parliament shortly. The bill by the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party will amend the laws where animals are being treated as a commodity.

The legislation intends to reduce crimes and abuse towards animals. This includes any crimes against animals and will carry the same penalty as crimes committed against humans. They can be sentenced to imprisonment.

Under this new law, complaint offices will be set up at local branches of the Ministry of Agriculture. This will be done to encourage the masses to file a complaint against any violence towards stray animals. These offices will initiate the investigation and refer these cases to the court.

The bill states that any stray animals that are adopted will be micro chipped allowing authorities to track their movements. Even if their respective pet parents disown them, they can be tracked and punished.

The bill enables municipalities to sterilize all stray animals.

Pet shop owners will only be able to sell animals online and will be required to keep them in their natural habitat until adoption is finalized.

Turkey believes that they are the descendants of the Ottomans whose humanitarian outreach extends to animals.