The two-year-old girl lost her life after being attacked by a group of stray dogs in Konya in central Turkey on Friday. The incident has sparked new criticism against the estimated four million stray dogs in the country.
A criminal investigation has been initiated, and the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Saturday that the government is taking "decisive measures to ensure the implementation of the law".
The legislation already exists, but is only partially, if at all, used by local authorities.
Animal rights groups have called the law the "massacre law". There is concern that it will lead to dogs being put down or placed in overcrowded dog shelters. When the law was adopted, the largest opposition party promised that municipalities governed by the party would not implement the collection of animals.
The law requires municipalities to collect stray dogs and place them in dog shelters where they will be vaccinated and neutered before they can be adopted. Dogs that are sick, pose a health risk to humans, or are incurably ill will be put down.
