Animal welfare campaigners have made an official objection to the tender amounting to 52,654,240 TL which the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality granted for the collection, transport and treatment of unowned animals.
The agreement covers the provision of services to be carried out between 22 June and 31 December 2026 and relates to teams charged with capturing stray animals, transporting them to municipal facilities and providing them with veterinary treatment. The tender states that dogs taken from the streets are taken to municipal shelters, while cats are treated and then returned to the places from which they were found, in keeping with the present practice.
A complaint has been submitted to Turkey’s Public Procurement Authority (Kamu İhale Kurumu), with the campaigners stating that the municipality should place greater emphasis on preventive animal welfare measures, in particular those concerning sterilisation and vaccination programmes. They claim that the best way of dealing with stray animal populations and of reducing the pressure on shelters is to reduce the number of unwanted litters.
People have also expressed concern regarding the procurement process itself, with the issues cited being whether the contractor who has been chosen has the required experience in the capturing and rehabilitating animals and whether sufficient attention has been given to animal welfare in the tender. According to the Turkish press, separate objections have been filed in order to challenge various aspects of the procurement.
The tender is being launched at a time when municipalities throughout Türkiye are under increasing pressure to implement the amended Animal Protection Act and to improve their capacity in relation to unowned animals; the local authorities in question have to act within the framework created by national legislation while at the same time giving veterinary care and shelter services.
The Public Procurement Authority will be required to consider the objections before determining whether the procurement process should proceed as originally awarded or whether any aspect of the tender should be reviewed. It has been reported by Turkish media that the matter might ultimately be referred to the administrative courts in accordance with the outcome.
There is an current debate among animal welfare organisations in Turkey as to what the most effective approach is for balancing the immediate care of animals without owners with longer-term measures designed for reducing the number of dogs and cats that enter the system in the future.