To make happy, to be happy, and to respect the right to life of every living creature...

The “Draft Law on Amendments to the Animal Protection Law,” which includes regulations regarding stray animals, has been accepted by the Commission and sent to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) General Assembly. Now it is the turn of all members of parliament to examine their consciences…

People are up in arms against the draft law proposed for stray animals. Members of parliament in the Assembly, legal experts, animal rights advocates, citizens from all walks of life on the streets, and those voicing their reactions on social media… They are shouting that they do not approve of this proposal, which no person with a conscience would accept and which is completely devoid of scientific basis.

Istanbul Bar Association Animal Rights Center Spokesperson Atty. Bahtiyar Güner states that the solution is neutering, vaccination, and allowing them to live in their habitats.

Is it a solution to round up animals, keep them in dilapidated places called shelters, and mass-slaughter them all? Above all, is it humane? It is the job of the One who gives life to take it, not yours!

We are in days where we witness those who claim to be afraid of committing sins and going to hell trying to take lives and turn the world into hell. Perhaps this is the most painful part!

What should be said about this selfishness of humans, who have risen from a timid creature in nature to the position of the “master” of the world through the use of their intellect and the development, accumulation, and inventions provided by all their skills?

Mankind, or by the name it gave itself with a bit of arrogance, “homo sapiens,” is both the most interesting and the most irritating of the living species on earth… (Bertrand Russell quotes this saying).

“To make happy, to be happy, and to respect the right to life of every living creature.” This phrase has echoed in my mind since the day I read it. It is the life philosophy of Prof. Dr. İsmet Sungurbey, who dedicated his life to the creatures on the street. This philosophy should be an example to all of us, but most of all to those legal professionals who hold the title of “lawyer” yet share messages defending the “massacre of the creatures on the street.”

Sungurbey is the author of the first “Animal Rights” book in Turkey, who taught Civil Law at Istanbul University for 50 years. He was a professor who never liked money, did not even let his students buy textbooks, and had them take notes during lectures…

Every evening, he would fill the back of his car with what he bought from butchers, liver sellers, and fishmongers, and from 4 o'clock in the morning, he would leave them at designated points from Yedikule to Beyazıt for the stray animals. He would be attacked and threatened because of the animals, but he would still run to the creatures waiting for him at the same hour without fail. Summer, winter, regardless of illness… He wouldn't even go on vacation…

“I put myself in the place of a ‘cat’ or a ‘dog’ that has puppies. I will go, I will look for something in the garbage dumps. There is nothing in the dumps but coal dust, nylon, and paper. If I find a piece of dry bread, my breasts will fill with milk, and I will feed my puppies. I always put myself in their place. That is why I spend both my wealth and my life for them. It is a sacrifice... I haven't eaten meat for 25 years either...”

İsmet Sungurbey had a progressive and populist identity. He did not shy away from the struggle for Turkey's independence, equality, and freedom. I commemorate Professor Sungurbey, who passed away on September 21, 2006, at the age of 78, and who was a kind of ‘dervish’ of our age, with respect once again on this occasion.

The philosophy of “To make happy, to be happy, and to respect the right to life of every living creature” of Professor İsmet Sungurbey should also be a justification and a source of hope in the face of remarks like “Take these and look after them at your home” or “You don't speak up about this, but you only shout for dogs.”

This is also our debt to every creature, living being, person, child, woman, bird, dog, cat, insect, tree, greenery, water… To nature and all its beings…

As stated in the Native American proverb; “We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrowed it from our children.”