If this report would not be taken into consideration, why was this commission established? Why was a recommendation report published? Ever since the recommendations were published, the AKP continues to ignore animal rights advocates when providing concessions and support to those who earn income from animal abuse.
Vegan Cortege made a press release for animal rights law with the call for “Law for Life”.
Today (May 27), a simultaneous press release was held in Izmir, Ankara, Bursa, Eskişehir, Istanbul, Urfa and Antalya. Animal rights advocates said, “A Vegan World for True Justice, Law for Life.”
“The law for life, advocating for animal rights is veganism.” “Parliament take sides with animals!” “Animal rights right now” “Live like an animal, be human” “Milk, eggs, honey, all abuse” “Law for life, not for rent” were in the fields.
The full text of the press release is as follows:
TO THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC
As animal rights defenders, we have been fighting for a law in favor of animals for years, but every information from the legislators shows that the prepared law means cruelty and death for animals. Legislators, who say that they are with animals at every opportunity, constantly contradict themselves with the decisions they make and the statements they make. It has been more than 1.5 years since the Animal Rights Research Commission recommendation report submitted to the Speaker of the Assembly in October 2019, but there is still no draft, there is still no rights-based approach. Statements made to the press show that the report agreed upon by the five political parties, which we think should be developed, has fallen far behind.
If this report would not be taken into consideration, why was this commission established? Why was a recommendation report published? Ever since the recommendations were published, the AKP continues to ignore animal rights advocates when providing concessions and support to those who earn income from animal abuse.
-In February 2020, an amendment was made to the “Regulation on the production, sale, accommodation and training places of pets and ornamental animals”. It was allowed to open these facilities next to the places where food is produced. “Animals that can harm each other, even if they are of the same species, cannot be kept together.” requirement has been removed. The documents required for the establishment of production and sales facilities have been reduced. While things went from bad to worse for animals marketed as commercial products, pet shop owners and animal producers were revived.
They wanted to make the hunters’ job easier by aiming to make changes in the Land Hunting Law in June 2020. The Amendment aims to make arrangements for scientific research of some animals, hunting of those who harm people or property, and allowing high level representatives such as diplomats, international organization representatives or state guests to hunt free of charge when necessary. was justified by saying.
On March 11, 2021, AKP held a meeting under the chairmanship of Özlem Zengin with the participation of Mustafa Yel, Yunus Kılıç, Zeynep Yıldız, Serap Yahşi and Rümeysa Kadak. Nearly 50 animal rights activists attended the meeting. In the 8-hour meeting, AKP did not share the draft law with us and did not give satisfactory and detailed answers to our questions. It is not possible for this process, which is not carried out transparently, to result in favor of animals. We think that this meeting was held to give the message “Look, we listen to you and your demands”. We remind the AKP that the efforts it has done to restrain us will not achieve its purpose.
On April 19, 2021, a Presidential decree on KOSGEB supports was published in the Official Gazette. According to this, it was revealed that activities such as zoos, fishing, hunting, horse racing and training of “sports and recreational animals” of which we do not know what it means will be supported by KOSGEB. On the one hand, while they say in the mainstream press that they will “improve” the existing Animal Protection Law, in the background they issue state support for animal abuse without anyone knowing.
Upon all these developments, the interview given to Milliyet by the “AKP staff”, as the phrase appeared in the news, on May 13, 2021, was the last straw for us. In the news of Milliyet, we see that there are lawmakers who still define animal abuse as “sexual intercourse with an animal”. We know that the use of this expression is a purely deliberate choice, because one of the recommendations of the Commission report was to change the expression of sexual intercourse with an animal to “sexual abuse of animals” or “sexual assault on animals”. If they were defined in this way, according to the recommendation, these acts would also fall within the scope of imprisonment. In this statement, we see a dark future that will not be saved from the spiral of inadmissible imprisonment for perpetrators, sacrificed animals and violence.
In the report, the AKP’s staff stated that the imprisonment sentence from 6 months to 3 years for rape of animals will be revised, claiming that the “declaration” principle may turn into a problem. Since sentences under 2 years can be postponed in Turkey, even in this case, the perpetrators will not be imprisoned with the amount of punishment they foresee. Because it is almost impossible to give the penalty over the upper limit. Obviously, even this is too much for the legislators. We ask: What is meant by the statement problem? Can’t the perpetrator be detected with a forensic report? Can’t photos, videos, witnesses be used as evidence? This expression clearly means “we will avoid investigating.”
Again, in the same news, it is stated that the regulation was on the agenda to include other animals, but that an expansion in this direction was abandoned due to the reactions from hunters and fishermen. With these statements, AKP staff once again demonstrated that they value the demands of the rent owners who lobby the Parliament more than the rights of the animals. With these statements, AKP once again revealed that it was affected by the rentier lobbies.
THAT ‘S ENOUGH!
Animals that come to mind only after election time or after indignation violations are not policy material, but the unique subjects of their own lives. The rulership and all politicians must now understand this fact and use their hands over animals to enact a law that only protects their rights, to hold a pen!
Stop trying to deceive society by claiming that you are on the side of animals. If you put one-thousandth of your effort to protect the animals’ rights to protect the facilities where animals are held captive and exploited, a lot of death and suffering could have been avoided in 17 years. These losses were experienced again because you were not on the side of the oppressed.
We will not be silent! We will continue to voice our demands for animals. We do not give up the rights of animals. The more you listen to the demands of civil society, the louder we will cry out. We are here; We are not going until you reveal your policies and take back the rights of animals.
We repeat our demands from the law once again:
a) It is stated that crimes against animals are calculated as “proportionate to crimes against people” and that the proposed prison sentence of “6 months to 4 years” will be given. We do not accept this proposal because we know that, as animal rights lawyers have repeatedly underlined, the perpetrator with a sentence of less than 2 years will not go to jail. Therefore, the lower limit of punishment should be set as 3 years in order not to postpone the sentence for crimes against animals, not to delay the announcement of the verdict, and not be able to be converted into a judicial fine.
b) In the law proposal and the implementation regulation to be prepared after the law is enacted, there should not be any “limit for the number of pets kept at home”. Article 6 of the current Animal Protection Law No. 5199 should be protected and municipalities should be included in the penalty area. While planning the “sterilization mobilization” of the municipalities, in order for this activity to be realized primarily for the benefit of the animals, mobile sterilization, which is also included in the Commission’s report, should not be carried out, besides, the municipalities should have all the equipment that will not harm animal health technically in this area, and when they say “population control”, it should not turn into animal slaughter as in the past. It is not population control to collect the animals – especially dogs – that are the inhabitants of the street, to put them in shelters that are no different from prisons and to be thrown into remote forest areas. We would like to remind you of our demand that the “camera system in shelters”, which seems to be a very technical detail but will prevent serious animal crimes, should be accessible to everyone 24/7.
c) While the commission report proposes a fine of 10,000 TL to the person who leaves the animal, reducing this amount to 3,000 TL in the latest regulations is unacceptable as it will eliminate deterrence.
d) In the new proposed system, which proposes to ban only pets in pet shops, but allows animals to be produced and sold in breed associations, there will always be those who leave animals to their fate on the streets and in the forests. From this point of view, the sale of animals should be prohibited in pet shops and breed associations. This prohibition should cover all species such as exotic and wild animals, not just domestic animals.
e) Establishing animal circus in Turkey and the entry of animal circus and shows to Turkey should be prohibited.
f) The existing 10 dolphin parks, which are no different from animal circuses, should be closed within 1 year, new facilities and water circuses should not be opened, and an inland rehabilitation and care area should be established where all marine mammals captured in existing animal prisons will be protected.
g) Zoos should be prohibited, and new ones should not be allowed to open. Animals held in over 40 existing facilities should be protected for life, and animal captivity should be brought to an end by transforming existing animal prisons into rehabilitation areas.
h) Fur and leather farms should be closed, the importation of fur should be banned, and even the curriculum on fur in veterinary faculties should be removed.
i) Animal experiments should be banned and started to be used all over the world with animal-free scientific methods, students who avoid animal experiments for ethical reasons should be given the right to ethical education. The killing of animals in the experimental centers should be prohibited and the current family giving regulation should be applied.
j) All animal fights and races that are allegedly non-violent and carried out under the name of “wrestling, sports” should be enacted by a law that includes violence, and bull and camel wrestling, which is considered to be “traditional”, should be prohibited together with horse races.
k) The definitions and lists of “prohibited breeds” and “dangerous breeds” should be removed as soon as possible, these dogs, who were sentenced to life imprisonment in shelters and were imprisoned for life in sections closed to visitors or killed secretly in a short time, should be rehabilitated and housed with their families. People who raise animals and use them as weapons should be penalized.
We see that some of the issues in the report of the commission, which have been demanded by those who have been struggling for animal rights for years, could not even find a place in the proposal, which is said to be prepared. Therefore, we need to remind our demands again.
– Until the facilities where animals defined as “farm animals” but who are only individuals who can feel for us are killed and exploited, a 24/7 camera must be obligatory;
– Live animal trade, which is reflected in the press and hurts the public conscience, should be banned;
– Hunting and hunting tourism aiming to slaughter endangered species, endemic species and many wild animals defined as “game animals” or included in this category every year under the name of pleasure, hobby and sport should be completely banned;
– The use of animals for carrying loads should be stopped, animals that survived this exploitation should be ensured to live a life free from cruelty and torture for the remaining years;
– Fireworks that kill hundreds of birds every year and pose a great danger to human life due to the risk of explosion should be prohibited.
If the Animal Rights Law was passed in line with our demands; Dora dog killed by Ozan Öztürk by being shot on the ground, 16 dogs killed with poisonous meat given by 3 people in Ankara Batıkent, Kangal dog, whose cadaver was cut and cadaver was cut for anatomy lessons, brought to Cumhuriyet University from the village where he lived, 8 Turtles killed by stone, Van 70 dogs killed in Chaldiran, BY The baby wolf, who was caught and tortured to death in İspir mountain by his friends, Bahtiyar parrot who was tortured to death by Murat Özdemir, the colt that was cut into dogs by Berat Kaya while he was sucking his mother, and thousands of other animals could be alive now. Because there are no effective and deterrent laws to protect their lives.
BUT;
We have not lost our hope that an Animal Rights Law befitting 21st century Turkey will be enacted to acknowledge and protect the innate rights of animals, or that arrangements will be made in favor of animals in the Animal Protection Law, which is far from protecting the rights of animals in its current form. We remind once again and again that the law proposal, which is based on the interests of animals, not the sectors that exploit animals, should be finalized as soon as possible and animal rights should not be negotiated.
From here once again we shout: WE WANT LAW FOR LIFE!
Press release signatories:
The Islands’ Horses Platform
Alakir River Brotherhood
Animal Save Turkey
Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Nature Friendly Community
Antalya Feminist Collective
A Paw Gang Association
Biz Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Research Association
Boğaziçi University Social Service Club (BUSOS)
Boysan’s House
Burak Özgüner Animal Rights Study Center
Bursa Vegan Initiative
Association for Combating Sexual Violence
Çanakkale Vegan Initiative
Democratic Women’s Movement
Dersim Municipality
Diyarbakir Bar Association Animal Rights Center
Children of Nature
The Four-Legged City
Ecology Association
Ecology Union Youth Assembly
Ecology Union Women’s Assembly
Empathy Association
Ethical Possibility Enhancement (EPE)
Happinesspaws / Happiness Paws
Animal Rights Watch (JUDGE)
Animal Rights Assembly
Animal Rights and Ethics Association Animal Liberation Committee
Animal Justice Association (HAD)
Animal Protection, Rescue and Survival Association
Istanbul City Defense
Istanbul University Faculty of Law Animal Rights Club
Izmir Bar Association
Izmir Vegan Initiative
İzmir Pride Committee
Kadıköy Urban Solidarity
Non-Campus Solidarity Academy
Black Sea is in Revolt Platform
Kazdagi Natural and Cultural Heritage Conservation Association
Kazdaglari Istanbul Solidarity
Kurtköy Paws
Nilüfer City Council Animal Rights Working Group
Odunpazari Modern Museum
Pollen Ecology
Colorful Hopes Association
Roman Garden
Sarıyer Urban Solidarity
Seferihisar Nature and Animal Friends Association (SEHAYDER)
Nonviolence Education and Research Association
Theater Undefined
Vegan Farm
Vegan Association Turkey (TVD)
Vegan Newspaper
Vegan Cortege
vegAnkara
vegvorous
Law for Life Initiative
Yıldız Technical University Vegan Vegetarian Society
Dolphin Freedom Platform
Zonguldak Karaelmas Vegan Society
29th Istanbul Pride Week Committee
You can access the Instagram and Twitter accounts of the Vegan Cortege here.
