Puppy owner fined in Turkey's Bodrum for letting dog in the sea

BODRUM – Doğan News Agency

This file photo shows a dog jumps into the sea in south of Spain August 4, 2013. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

A dog-owner who was fined 101 Turkish Liras for letting her Scottish terrier puppy swim in the sea has vowed to file a complaint to a local court over the decision by Muğla’s Gündoğan Municipality.

Romeo, the puppy, swam with its owner businesswoman Hürriyet Özçelik along the Gündoğan beach, which is open to the public and located in one of Turkey’s most popular resort towns, Bodrum, last month.

The Municipality Council fined her 110 liras, nearly 40 euros, for “disturbing people by letting her dog enter the water” in a decision taken on Aug. 29.

Özçelik, aged 52, who is an executive board member of the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGİDER), said she would initiate a cancellation case against the fine since she did not want this to become a binding precedent for similar future cases.

 Gündoğan’s Mayor, a member of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), İbrahim Bilgi, said that the fine was issued in accordance with the applicable laws.

“Dogs are forbidden in 25 percent of our town’s coastal area. The lady may let her dog swim in the remaining 75 percent should she wish to,” he said.