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Rabat – An uproar over stray dogs being locked up and left to starve in an abandoned shelter in Al-Arjat, a village near Rabat, has revived the debate about the continuous mistreatment of stray animals in Morocco.
Earlier this week, a video went viral of the revolting conditions at the Al-Arjat shelter, where a considerable number of stray dogs were callously abandoned after the shelter staff locked them up and left them without food or water.
Particularly outrageous for watchers of the viral video was that some of the hungry- and tired-looking dogs were feeding on the rotten flesh of other dogs that had died after going days without any food, water, or medical attention.
The situation sparked uproar and frustration among ordinary Moroccan citizens and activists alike, and many have since been calling for holding to account the people in charge of the shelter for abandoning the puppies and dogs without care and food.
Salima Kadaoui, President and Founder of SFT Animal Sanctuary in Tangier, has yet again strongly condemned the mistreatment of stray dogs in Morocco.
In a statement to Morocco World News, the activist described the situation of the stray dogs locked up in the Al-Arjat center as “unacceptable.”
“What they have done there is unacceptable,” she said, stressing that rounding up dogs and putting them all together is “the craziest and ridiculous thing to do.”
Read Also: Video of Abandoned Stray Dogs in Dire Conditions in Shelter Near Rabat Stirs Anger
Kadaoui also commented on the overall grim and unhygienic conditions at the shelter.
“The mass of bacteria is unreal, so people responsible for this are responsible for public health.This is unacceptable and inhumane and it’s completely against humanity,” she told MWN.
The Rabat Region Amendments, a company tasked with ensuring the implementation of development programs in the Rabat region, is said to have built the facility of the Al-Arjat shelter in order to temporarily host unvaccinated stray dogs. The goal was ostensibly to help vaccinate and sterilize stray puppies and dogs and eventually release them.
According to the political party Federation of the Democratic Left, the lucrative contract to run the center was awarded to a newly founded animal welfare association called the Moroccan Association for the Protection of Animals and the Environment.
The municipalities of Rabat, Sale, and Temara recently signed an agreement with the association to run the facility. The terms of the agreement were the association would benefit from MAD 12 million ($1.17million) over three years to run the shelter and help fulfill the local authorities’ pledge to vaccinate and sterilize stray dogs, the party revealed, stressing that it had opposed the agreement as it felt the association lacked the experience needed to run such as facility.
Read also: 7 Things Animal Lovers Want You to Know About Moroccan Stray Dogs
In her statement to MWN, Kadaoui noted she contacted the president of the association about the viral video but received no response.
“Nothing. No comments. This is what’s happening. Nobody wants to comment. There is one thing I can say is this cannot happen and it has to be stopped,” Kadaoui emphasized.
Asked about what has been missing in Morocco’s approach to tackling the situation of stray dogs, Kadaoui said: “Common sense.. It’s as simple as that. You know, the biggest problem we have here is the stupidity of saying people are scared. People are scared because they are told to be scared. If you have no fear, you don’t get bitten.”
Like Kadaoui, many people have expressed concerns about rabies among stray dogs, emphasizing the need for authorities in Morocco to review how they have been tackling the situation of stray dogs.
Kadaoui stressed the importance of awareness campaigns, pointing out the need for ordinary Moroccans to get familiar with steps to follow in the event of a dog bite.
“If you get bitten today by a dog, any mammal that has been contaminated by another mammal, first thing to do is to wash your wounds very well with water and soap for 15 minutes and then you go to a center to receive a vaccination against rabies. It’s free in Morocco,” she stressed.
Since the creation of the SFT Shelter, Kadaoui’s Hayat (life) project has tagged over 3,400 stray dogs in Morocco.
Kadaoui emphasized that the city of Tangier has “TNVR[Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return] dogs and the local authorities keep asking us to remove dogs because they don’t think it looks good to see dogs. They also ask me why in Europe you don’t see strays. My reply is ‘we are in Africa.’”
In Morocco, apart from SFT, a very few number of NGOs have started TNVR programs, Kadaoui explained, stressing that SFT hosts more than 10% of the canine population. Killing dogs is seen as “barbaric” everywhere, she concluded.
