To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video Chris Packham has slammed new legislation over concerns stray dogs could be killed . The Springwatch host and conservationist , 63, has declared there is potential for an ‘absolute travesty’. His comments come after Turkey looks set to pass a law aiming to regulate the country’s 4 million stray dogs .
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan maintains the country has a stray dog ‘problem’ putting children, adults and elderly people, as well as other animals, at risk of ‘attack’. He has also said stray dogs ‘attack flocks of sheep and goats and cause traffic accidents’. The bill, which is expected to be voted on in the next few days, mandates that municipalities collect stray dogs and house them in shelters where they would be neutered and spayed.
Dogs that are in pain, terminally ill, pose a health risk to humans or are aggressive would be euthanised. However, animal rights activists are concerned dogs could be killed on the pretext they are ill, rather than allocate resources to shelter them, or send them to neglected and overcrowded shelters, claims the government has denied. But Chris has urged others to ‘take action’ and sign a petition urging the country ‘not to kill’ the animals.
Posting a video on X, in which he appeared alongside his poodle Nancy, Chris said: ‘I love my dogs. I love animals. I love all life.
At the moment in Turkey, there is t.