Home > Current Affairs News > AKP Keçiören Mayor shifts blame to ministries following stray dog attack: 'We reported it, received no response'

AKP Keçiören Mayor shifts blame to ministries following stray dog attack: 'We reported it, received no response'

Following the severe injury of 4th-grade student Tunahan Yılmaz, who was attacked by dogs in an open field in Ankara's Keçiören district, AKP Keçiören Mayor Turgut Altınok stated in a post on his X account that they had reported the situation to the relevant ministries but received no response.

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The treatment of Nurettin Demirer Primary School student Tunahan Yılmaz, who was severely injured in an attack by stray dogs in the Kafkas neighborhood of Ankara's Keçiören district, continues in the pediatric intensive care unit at Hacettepe İhsan Doğramacı Children's Hospital.

As the painful incident occupies the public agenda, AKP Keçiören Mayor Turgut Altınok made a statement regarding the matter.

"WE REPORTED IT TO THE RELEVANT MINISTRIES, WE RECEIVED NO RESPONSE"

Stating that the issue of stray animals is not solely the responsibility of municipalities and that many institutions and organizations must work simultaneously, Altınok said, "This issue has been reported by our municipality to the relevant ministries and related units through official correspondence for a long time, and correspondence has been conducted to take measures to prevent the abandonment of uncontrolled animals. Unfortunately, not only have we received no feedback on the matter, but the process of abandoning stray animals has also continued unabated."

Altınok noted the following:

"The painful incident that occurred yesterday morning in the Bağlum Kafkas neighborhood has deeply saddened us all. First and foremost, I wish a speedy recovery to our injured child and his family, and we would like to inform the public that we have been by our family's side moment by moment since the hour this unfortunate incident occurred and that we have mobilized every resource for our child's treatment. Our child is currently under the control and close monitoring of our university, our physicians, and expert medical personnel. Unfortunately, recent stray animal attacks have reached levels that threaten the peace and safety of our children and all our citizens in many of our cities. While we do not find it appropriate to convey and discuss the legal responsibilities of lawmakers, relevant ministries, metropolitan and district municipalities in this painful atmosphere and on this platform for the purpose of managing the process correctly and producing solution-oriented urgent projects; we would like to inform the public that while we are by our child's and family's side on one hand, we are also conducting studies on what can be done to contribute to the macro-level solution of the problems and the rapid elimination of gaps regarding legal regulations on the other.

Immediately after the incident in question occurred, as we have been doing uninterruptedly for some time, we are trying to collect all the stray animals that are uncontrollably and collectively abandoned in our region at night the next day and bring them under control in our Rehabilitation Center according to legal practices. The issue of stray animals is not just a matter for municipalities, but a multi-dimensional issue that requires follow-up, and therefore requires the simultaneous and coordinated work of many institutions and organizations. The problem is significant... According to Law No. 5199, stray animals must be returned to the area where they were taken within 10 days at the latest after being collected, neutered, vaccinated, and tagged. And again, according to the law, local governments are obliged to control the stray animals in their regions by establishing shelters and rehabilitation centers. However, many municipalities cannot provide either shelter or rehabilitation center services. For this reason, stray animals collected from other regions for a long time are being illegally abandoned in groups in open fields, and especially in the region where the incident in question took place.

This issue has been reported by our municipality to the relevant ministries and related units through official correspondence for a long time, and correspondence has been conducted to take measures to prevent the abandonment of uncontrolled animals. Unfortunately, not only have we received no feedback on the matter, but the process of abandoning stray animals has also continued unabated. As a municipality that has not experienced the slightest problem or attack to date regarding the registered stray animals kept in care and rehabilitation belonging to our district, it has devastated us all that aggressive stray animals, whose origin is unknown and which are not in our records, attacked our child in an open field within our borders at night. As Keçiören Municipality, we are a municipality that has been an example to our country for 4.5 years with the effort to fulfill our duties fully and completely so that stray animals can be collected, registered, and rehabilitated after vaccination and neutering, and our streets can find peace."