Do Not Waste Our Ministry's Time!"

Last week, Ministry of Agriculture responded to the constructive solution pleas of Ahmet Kemal Şenpolat, Attorney At Law, in a 'small-talk' style. This time, the very same ministry responded Deniz Tavşancıl, Attorney At Law and Bar of Istanbul Animal Rights Commission Secretary simply by saying "Do not waste the ministry's time."

Asst. Prof. Muzaffer Aydemir, Manager in Charge of Istnabul Protection and Control Directorate, Ministry of Agriculture, whose deputy's 'small-talk' style caused a great stir, surprised even more by his response style to Deniz Tavşancıl, Attorney At Law, who requested information about the slaughter of 280 dogs in the animal shelter of Bandırma Municipality. Aydemir, responding to Tavşancıl as stated by Freedom of Information Act, said: "I kindly request that from now on, our Ministry's time not be wasted by groundless claims and unproven information".

Tavşancıl sent a petition to Ministry of Agriculture, claiming that 280 dogs in Bandırma Animal Shelter were slaughtered because of some government functions neglected their duties and caused a rabies outbreak.

Tavşancıl, emphasizing that the animals in shelters are considered as 'owned and controlled animal' status, said: "These animals were practically stuffed together but nobody cared to apply a rabies shot that costs 2 YTL (1.5 USD) per animal. When one contracted rabies, officials took the express route to slaughter them rather than quarantine first. I claimed within my legal rights to be informed on whether Ministry or local directorate officials are responsible for such drastic measures."

'A MATTER OF CATS AND DOGS'

The petition, which emphasized that slaughtering animals without proven, material and legal causes is a clear and deliberate breach of Animal Protection Act (#5199), also stated: "Each action by itself is a separate crime of negligence of duty as dictated by Turkish Criminal Law, Item 257. In spite of all legal regulations passed into action, still the old-school mass-slaughters are performed, and the very public officials of Turkish Republic, which is a state of law, see it just to breach the laws as if they do not exist. We believe your ministry will NOT cover-up this issue as simply being 'a matter of cats and dogs.'"

The warning to a legal organization 'NOT to waste the ministry's time with ungrounded claims surprised many people. Previously, Deputy Manager Beytullah Okay's e-mail reply, highlighting man-slaughter of U.S. and Israel and criticizing animal rights campaigns caused a large reaction.

In essence, these replies are a very good indication of how much Turkey should fare to reach the level of developed countries. Until now, when faced with questions within their responsibility or offered alternative solutions, government officials clearly stated that they are reluctant to leave the bureaucratic path they are accustomed to.

This was neither first nor last reply to a question which bureaucrats replied in seminars by saying that volunteer work and civilian initiatives are very important. Government officials clearly stated that they do not like the cooperation of volunteers at all.

These so-called "officials", who get paid by our taxes and whose duties are defined by the regulations of the state, simply do not care about anything within their job definitions, but are knowledgeable enough on everything else. In fact, they just confirmed what philosopher Jalal The Beard said:

"Those who know do not care, those who care do not know!"