Mansur Yavaş's statement on stray dogs: 'Animal lovers must also take responsibility, we will provide support'

Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mansur Yavaş gave a message regarding a solution for street animals in his statement concerning Tunahan Yılmaz, a 4th-grade student who was seriously injured after being attacked by stray dogs in Keçiören yesterday.

Yavaş answered questions from members of the press following a program held in the conference hall at the municipal building as part of International Day of Persons with Disabilities events.

Upon a question regarding the injury of a child due to an attack by stray dogs in Keçiören two days ago, Yavaş said that he has not seen any stray animals on the streets in any country in Europe.

IT CANNOT BE DONE WITH SPAYING ALONE

Stating that they want animal lovers to come and care for the dogs in the boutique shelters they have recently built, with the municipality covering the costs, Yavaş said, "I am respectful, I am also respectful of the opinions of animal lovers, but the population has increased so much that we are the first municipality in Turkey to open a spaying tender outside of our own facilities. We have contracted with 13 clinics. When females are spayed, they need to stay for a week.

Males can be released back onto the street immediately, but with this population, there is no way to prevent this just by spaying in this manner," he said.

"THERE SHOULD BE NO SUCH THING AS A STRAY ANIMAL"

Informing that they will continue spaying operations on one hand and host stray dogs from the streets in shelters on the other, Yavaş used the expressions, "If they really want to, let animal lovers also take responsibility. We will provide support, let them adopt them. There should be no such thing as a stray animal."

Upon a question regarding whether shelters will be a solution to this problem, Yavaş noted the following:

"I will hand this over to volunteers. That is, let those who truly love them come, we will cover the expenses, and they can look after and care for them there as they wish.

It is not possible to deal with this population in any other way.

I have said this before. Opposing circles have declared their helplessness. All of Turkey is in the same situation, all major cities are in the same situation. Let's come together and fix this issue. I believe a law will also be passed by the Parliament regarding this."

News Source: AA