Court cancels red deer hunt tender

ESKİŞEHİR

The tender for hunting a total of 20 red deer in central Anatolian provinces of Eskişehir, Afyonkarahisar, Denizli and Kütahya was canceled by the Afyonkarahisar Administrative Court upon the application of Eskişehir Animal Protection Association President Attorney Gülçin Yapıcı.

The Afyonkarahisar Regional Directorate of the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry organized a tender in September 2022 to hunt a total of 20 red deer, with 15 in Eskişehir, two in Afyon, one in Kütahya and two in Denizli provinces.

Yapıcı, president of Eskişehir Animal Protection Association, stated that the tender was unlawful and applied to Afyonkarahisar Administrative Court for a stay of execution. The court ruled that the tender was not in accordance with the law and canceled it.

The court decision stated that regarding the red deer hunt, which are considered among the protected fauna species in the Bern Convention, the reason for hunting red deer is shown as “for the continuation of the population.”

Yet the information documents and reports submitted to the file are not of this nature, and therefore it has not been concretely demonstrated that hunting tourism will have positive effects on the protection of the red deer fauna.

Thus, it has been concluded that there is no compliance with the law in the tender process subject to the lawsuit for the hunting of red deer.

Yapıcı stressed that the killing of endangered red deer, which is an element of ecological balance, is actually murder and against the law.

Previously, hunting tenders in these four provinces had been suspended. Now with the annulment of the decision, the animals were saved for good, she said.