New Horizons September 2018 | Page 27

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Commissioned in 2018, Selim livestock market is held on Monday and Thursday. Mustafa Yücel, who has arrived at the market to sell his animals, stated that “We are very happy with the livestock market; it has water; we can place animals at certain locations. Be it cleanliness or water, this place is comfortable for the animals. It has an animal loading-unloading ramp. Earlier, animals get lost in an unruly area, everywhere was mud and rocks.”

Selim Municipality’s Veterinarian Rıdvan Kaya narrated that “This livestock market is much beautiful compared to the earlier one. This area has severe winters; the market was full of mud, and the citizens had difficulty. Now it is concrete under, there are paddocks, animal unloading location. Paddocks are full, here there are more than 1,000 cattle. This is a great service, great facility for citizens. It is also important for animal health. We get animals inspected, examined in general for existence of any diseases, we also have a quarantine room.”

Before the livestock markets were commissioned, merchant traders would go around in villages and buy villagers’ animals at very low prices, thus the winner was not the farmer, but the intermediaries. Once the livestock markets were commissioned, intermediaries disappeared, making it possible to sell the animals at true worth.

Veterinarian Rıdvan Kaya stated that “This is a meeting place; this market is important for improving animal health and also for human health. The purpose is to provide better conditions for human beings to trade their animals.”