Morocco signed an agreement with partners in 2019 with the aim of “identifying, sterilizing and vaccinating stray dogs.” However, local animal rights groups say that this program has not yet been implemented.
Animal rights activists rallied in Rabat on Saturday to demand a ban on the killing of stray dogs, an AFP journalist reported, as the authorities promise to manage the practice in a more humane way.
Activist Sacha came from Casablanca to demonstrate against “the merciless extermination of dogs and cats throughout Morocco”.
“The dogs are mistreated (…) they are not given food, they are not given water, they are brutally killed, burned alive, poisoned and their young drowned,” he told AFP, referring to a place where the animals are kept in Casablanca.
As part of an international protest campaign, and at the invitation of the Moroccan Association for the Protection of Animals, the small crowd that had gathered outside parliament chanted, “Stop killing street animals.”
“We want an immediate end to the slaughter of street dogs,” said the association’s head, Ali Ezz El-Din.
“We also ask the parliamentarians to enact an animal protection law,” he added.
According to its president, the association calls for the implementation of a special program to “capture” stray dogs and “sterilize and vaccinate them…”.
On the eve of the sit-in, the Ministry of Interior told local media that it had previously taken measures to encourage municipalities to avoid using firearms and toxic substances to eliminate stray dogs, in order to reduce the suffering of animals and prevent abuse of them.
Morocco signed an agreement with partners in 2019 with the aim of “identifying, sterilizing and vaccinating stray dogs.” However, local animal rights groups say that this program has not yet been implemented.
