Over 368,000 stray animals adopted from animal shelters: Ministry

Meltem Özgenç – ANKARA

More than 368,803 animals were adopted from animal shelters in the last 15 years, according to Agriculture and Forestry Ministry data.

As of the end of October 2019, people were fined around 3 million liras ($527,000) for the violation of animal rights in the same period.

Around 31.8 million liras ($5.6 million) of financial support was provided for the construction of nursing houses for street animals in the last 10 years.

An amount of around 4.9 million liras ($862,000) was transferred to local authorities for the sterilization of street animals in 2017-2018.

Around 1.6 million unattended animals were vaccinated and around 1.3 million street animals were sterilized between 2014-2019.

Around 3.7 million liras ($650,000) worth of microchips, ear tags and microchip readers were distributed to local authorities between 2014-2018.

Around 1.3 million liras ($228,000) worth of cat houses and dog kennels were built and distributed to local authorities for the purpose of sheltering stray animals in 2017-2018.

In Turkey, stray animals are a natural part of people’s daily lives and are welcomed almost anywhere across the cities.