Meeting on stray animals from the metropolitan municipality

Meetings organized by Antalya Metropolitan Municipality with district municipalities, NGOs, and local animal protection officers to discuss ‘Stray Animals Issue and Solution Proposals’ continue. In the second meeting, the importance of continuing collaboration for rapid and effective rehabilitation of stray animals and creating new natural habitats were discussed.
Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, under the leadership of the Department of Agricultural Services, initiated the second meeting of ‘Antalya Province Stray Animals Issue and Solution Proposals’ at Antalya Water and Sewerage Administration (ASAT) Meeting Hall. The meeting was attended by the Head of the Department of Agricultural Services of the Metropolitan Municipality, Seda Özel, representatives of NGOs, district municipalities’ veterinarians, and local animal protection officers.

‘Natural habitats should be created’
During the meeting, the Head of Veterinary Affairs Branch of the Metropolitan Municipality, Aslı Kılıç, made a presentation regarding improving living and rehabilitation conditions of stray animals, creating new natural habitats, and initiatives to increase community welfare. The meeting discussed changes related to the new draft law on stray animals with the common goal of providing a better future and living conditions for stray animals.

‘We will act with common sense’
The Head of the Department of Agricultural Services of the Metropolitan Municipality, Seda Özel, expressed their sensitivity towards this issue and stated, “We share our work on the increasing population of stray animals on the streets with our animal protection officers. The collaboration of our participants and their support are extremely valuable to us. In this regard, we are planning to prepare a joint work program. We will determine this program together with common sense in these meetings.”

‘We approach this issue with sensitivity’
Seda Özel, mentioning that the Mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality, Muhittin Böcek, attaches great importance to stray animals, said:
“We shared the information about the joint decisions we have taken with our district municipalities with the participants today. In the upcoming process, we will carry out active work to evaluate and reduce the population densities of cats and dogs in intense living areas, ensuring their correct feeding in the right areas. Especially to prevent the dangers posed by the excessive increase in cat and dog populations on the streets in terms of public health and safety in recent years, we are taking effective steps. By prioritizing public health that Muhittin Mayor emphasizes, we will achieve a population balance with a comprehensive planning. In our targeted joint work plan, we will continue to increase our collaboration with both all district municipalities’ veterinary affairs directorates and all animal protection officers and NGOs. We hope that it will be a successful work for animal and public health.”
Mehmet Çiller, a local animal protection officer in Döşemealtı district, praised the efforts of the Metropolitan Municipality for stray animals.

‘The Metropolitan is successfully managing a process’
Artun Efe Kum, serving as a Veterinarian at Konyaaltı Municipality, said, “I am in favor of these kinds of meetings continuing constantly and regularly. Collaboration between local animal protection officers and municipalities needs to continue to increase. Our Metropolitan Municipality, responsible for all districts, has a heavy workload, but I believe they are managing a successful process. I thank them very much for these efforts and meetings.”