It’s breaking news! For the first time in Turkey, Animal Rights Investigation Commission within the Turkish Parliament (TBMM) has recently finalized their recommandatory report, after much discussion, in line with most of our proposals, and suggested that the opening of new dolphinaria and animal circuses should be banned.
As for the current 10 dolphinaria in Turkey, the Commision recommended that they should be closed gradually and end their “business” in two years maximum while attempting to provide the animals with possible rehabilitation options.
What does it mean?
These initial affirmative decisions complete one of the biggest steps of our 9-year long anti-captivity struggle as Freedom for Dolphins Platform in Turkey.
Since these are “recommendations” to the Turkish Parliament at this stage, they haven’t been passed into law yet. That’s why we’ll have to keep fighting until the end, even more than we did in the past.
What to do now?
Now, we will need to stay together and become louder in our demands for animal rights. It’s important to keep on demanding 1 year maximum for the closure of current facilities and protection of animals, that these recommendations should not be stretched with standards to fit into the commercial interests of the captive industry and that these relevant articles should become law as soon as possible.
Please follow up with us and keep on calling out to the Turkish Parliament (abbrv. in Turkish: TBMM) for a complete ban: #TbmmEmptyTheTanks You can also support our struggle in Turkey by sharing this news with relevant journalists for further international leverage.
A word of hope and thanks
At this stage, we once again owe huge thanks to all of you, who have been beside us with their protests, petitions, criminal complaints, articles and social media posts, as well as to the animal rights groups and (i)NGOs that we have worked locally and internationally with, marine mammal veterinarians and academics for their scientific guidance, and the journalists who prioritized animal rights in media! A special thanks to Doç. Dr. Oytun Okan Şenel for the writing process of the recommendatory report.
We would like to thank, once again to Richard O’Barry from Dolphin Project for his contribution to this process through his supportive letter to the members of the Commission. For more info on this, please check this link here.
Find out more on Hurriyet Daily News piece “Animal commission proposes circus ban in Turkey“.
You may contact us at yunuslaraozgurluk [at] gmail.com or via our social media accounts.
