First statement from Özgür Özel regarding the stray animal law passed by Parliament: 'We will take it to the Constitutional Court...'

The 17-article Bill on Amendments to the Animal Protection Law, which has been debated for days in the public eye and caused significant backlash, and which provides for the killing of stray dogs, was accepted in the TBMM General Assembly with 275 votes against 224.

Following the passage of the controversial law through Parliament, all eyes turned to the opposition.

Speaking upon leaving the TBMM General Assembly, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel announced his party's roadmap regarding the process. Özel said, "It is very clear that the proposal is clearly unconstitutional and does not defend the right to life. Therefore, we will evaluate the process regarding the Constitutional Court all together and take the law to the Constitutional Court. Our municipalities will continue to do what is required of them, just as they have done until now."

"A VERY GREAT RISK HAS BEEN TAKEN IN TERMS OF PUBLIC HEALTH"

Özel made the following statements:

"First of all, it is very clear that the proposal is clearly unconstitutional and does not defend the right to life. Therefore, we will evaluate the process regarding the Constitutional Court all together. A right to a healthy environment is necessary for people, and considering that vaccinated stray dogs act as a barrier against diseases such as rabies between wildlife and urban life, a very great risk has been taken in terms of public health. We will evaluate everything and take the law to the Constitutional Court. This is already our duty. We will do this as soon as possible with a request for a stay of execution. For four and a half years, the Constitutional Court has not implemented the stay of execution decision, which is an important gain, in all our applications. We hope they will abandon this here. I would like to thank everyone who objected to this, and the Republican People's Party group, very much.

"A STEP BACK WAS TAKEN WITH THE EFFORTS OF THE OPPOSITION"

In fact, something that doesn't happen very often will take place; we will hold a closed group meeting at 4 AM. It won't take very long, but our group has been defending what they know to be right with incredible performance for two and a half months. If it weren't for the superior efforts and determination of the Republican People's Party's Group Deputy Chairmen, management, and all our deputies, this law would have passed as euthanasia. They came with that determination. The opposition here combined with social sensitivity, and many steps back were taken. The law is still very dangerous, but in its original form, it was a massacre law.

It must be seen that these steps back were taken with the great efforts of the opposition and our group. Now we are moving to a closed group meeting to make a thank-you speech to our group and to make a brief evaluation regarding the summer work, as deputies do not have holidays, they have summer work. CHP municipalities will resist the implicit call of this law, which is 'you cannot solve this, come and commit a massacre,' and we will not comply with the implicit instruction of this law. In the coming process, we will do more than what is required of us regarding building shelters, vaccination, neutering, and adoption, but it is not possible for this burden to be fully fulfilled with municipal power and under these impossibilities. From now on, the irresponsible understanding of life today is responsible for every negative outcome that will occur. Our municipalities will continue to do what is required of them, just as they have done until now."