Rabat – NGO Morocco Animal Aid today expressed its deep frustration as authorities lined up with trucks to implement an eviction order.
Local authorities arrived in the association’s shelter in Acersif, a town 68 kilometers away from Agadir in the Souss-Massa region this morning, with the aim of evicting the place.
Fanny Belle and Lucy Austin, the founders of the NGO, told Morocco World News (MWN) that the shelter has not been informed about where the sheltered dogs will be relocated.
In response, people from the community and the association sat in the driveway to protest the eviction attempt, the founders said.
“We have received no notification of where the dogs will be taken and who will care for them there,” the founders said, noting that the authorities have not moved forward in the driveway.
The founders said that they are in touch with their lawyer regarding possibilities and options.
“We have started and we will continue to move as many animals as we can to other locations while working with the authorities,” they added.
The founders applied for a piece of land where they can move their activities and headquarters, but the process is taking a “long time.”
“We have been working on this and multiple other options to find another location for the past three years,” they said, noting that they have been engaged in talks with the commune and were positive to be granted the land.
“This eviction attempt comes as a surprise. We are still in touch with our lawyer to see what we can do,” the founders added.
Shortly after their arrival, the authorities and their truck left the place.
“We do not know why… We will continue our work on site, and the admin team is working to figure out what happened…We will contact the commune for an energy meeting to learn more about the status for the requested land.. They were supposed to get back to us regarding the application at the beginning of April,” the speakers added.
In March, the NGO issued their first appeal against the eviction targeting their shelter, noting that they were not made aware of court proceedings against their shelter.
The founders emphasized that the verdict had been issued and resulted in an eviction order but they were not informed or allowed to defend their case.
The eviction order means that the shelter workers need to relocate 200 dogs to another location.
Appealing for support from both media and the public, the NGO has consistently stressed its readiness to work with authorities and comply with all that it can do to protect the sheltered dogs.
It also commended Morocco’s efforts in addressing the situation of strays, recalling a 2019 released document from the Moroccan Ministry of Interior, urging municipalities in morocco to establish a regulatory framework for cooperation among stakeholders to address the situation of stray animals.
“At no point in this document is culling (mass killing of stray dogs) one of the solutions proposed to regulate the street population,” the founders told MWN in a previous interview.
The founders also emphasized that the document promotes science-based effective practice of vaccination, sterilization, and the adoption of animals instead.
