Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Vahit Kirişci attended the ‘World Veterinarians Day’ event organized by the Turkish Veterinary Medical Association. In the event hosted by the General Directorate of Forestry, Minister Kirşci, as well as the Chairman of the Central Council of the Turkish Veterinary Medical Association Ali Eroğlu, Ankara University Faculty of Veterinary Dean Prof. Dr. Ender Yarsan, Chairman of the Parliamentary Agriculture and Rural Affairs Commission Yunus Kılıç and guests took part.
“A TOPIC THAT NEEDS TO BE KEPT ON THE AGENDA”
Minister Kirişci reminded the ‘Neutralization of Orphaned Animals Campaign’ event held at the Mamak Municipality Animal Nursing Home and stated that they took an important step here and said, “Street animals are an issue that should always be kept on the agenda in our country. Veterinarians need to spend more time on solutions to this issue. “We have children who are attacked by stray animals every day. There are mothers and fathers who hurt. We definitely need to carry out field studies in the name of social responsibility and professional responsibility. Yes, we have a law. Yes, there are certain obligations imposed on our local governments because of this law.” Yes, there are supports provided by the General Directorate of Nature and National Parks in this regard, but I would like to emphasize once again that our veterinarians should make great efforts to take certain steps by noticing the magnitude of the incident.
Expressing that as a Ministry, they will fulfill their responsibilities regarding sterilization and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is also sensitive about this issue, Kirişci continued as follows:
“Just yesterday, we had a meeting of the heads of the provinces. This issue came to the fore there as well. I took it upon myself to express this once again here and I share it with you once again. There is much work that can be carried out together on this issue, related to the solution, prevention and improvement of this issue. “We have to take the necessary actions regarding all of our significant approaches and suggestions for slowing down the process. If you have a solution proposal for sterilization, we have to take all of them and take the necessary actions.”
‘THIS IS TAKING MY HEART’
After the speeches, Minister Kirişci presented a plaque to İbrahim Lale, the elder brother of Veterinarian Volkan Lale, who was killed in the line of duty in Yozgat Sorgun. Minister Kirişci, Director of Erciyes University Vaccine Research and Development Application Center, the inventor of the Turkovac vaccine, Prof. Dr. Aykut Özdarendeli also gave a painting with the poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy and Özdarendeli’s figures as a gift and said, “If we do a survey, how many people would know that the inventor of this vaccine is a veterinarian? It hurts me.”
