British Journalist: Campaign Linking Morocco to Alleged Dog Cull Reveals a Western Moral Blindspot

Beni Mellal – A British columnist has accused Western animal rights campaigners of imposing colonial double standards on Morocco over its alleged handling of stray dogs, as Morocco rolls out a $100 million national program built on sterilization, vaccination, and purpose-built shelters.

Writing in The Spectator on Wednesday, Ross Clark argued that the international outcry against Morocco “exposes a Western moral blindspot,” taking particular aim at what he called “mawkish sentimentality” driving campaigns that expect the rest of the world to mirror Western attitudes toward dogs.

“No civilized country would tolerate several million stray dogs on the streets,” Clark wrote, noting that stray dogs in Britain are routinely captured and, if unclaimed, euthanized – the very outcome “enlightened” Western campaigners condemn Morocco for pursuing.

The controversy escalated after Morocco secured co-hosting rights for the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal, prompting the International Animal Coalition to launch a campaign against what it described as a mass cull.

Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall wrote to FIFA in January 2025 urging it to pressure Morocco, warning of a planned “massacre of three million stray dogs.” Actor Mark Ruffalo called the claimed killings “a moral failure,” declaring that “killing millions of dogs to prepare for a global sporting event is not progress.”

Clark was unsparing in his assessment of Ruffalo’s intervention. “This is a little odd,” he wrote, noting that the same actor “seems to have no problem with the culling of unwanted members of his own species” – a reference to Ruffalo’s vocal support for abortion rights.

“That just about sums up the deep moral confusion of western liberals,” Clark concluded. “A campaign to cull 3 million dogs? An outrage. But an estimated 73 million abortions of humans around the world each year? It doesn’t even register with their consciences.”

The reality on the ground defies Western sentiment

Morocco denied the accusations categorically. Mohamed Roudani, Head of the Department of Health Preservation and Green Spaces at the General Directorate of Territorial Communities, told reporters in February 2025 the claims were “completely unfounded,” stating flatly: “There is no campaign to eradicate stray dogs.”

A Reuters fact-check later debunked a viral photograph circulated as supposed evidence of killings in Morocco – the image, showing a man pointing a gun at a dog, was taken in Iraq in 2008, not Morocco.

Clark framed the campaign as symptomatic of two distinct Western tendencies. The first, he argued, was sentimental: “Just because westerners have adopted them as pets, and fawn over them, we expect the rest of the world to do the same and become morally outraged if they do not.”

The second was structural: a long-standing Western habit of expecting people in developing countries “to live in close proximity to all kinds of dangerous and poisonous species – while we live peacefully and securely in landscapes which have been largely tamed of dangerous wildlife since medieval times.”

He further argued that the campaign against Morocco “ought to attract the attention of the decolonialization brigade,” asking: “How dare western sentimentalists try to lecture a developing country on how to deal with feral animals, especially in a Muslim country which has a very different cultural connection with dogs.” That the same voices who champion decolonization remain silent on this, Clark suggested, reveals the selective nature of their principles.

The public health dimension underpins Morocco’s urgency. Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit disclosed that in 2024 alone, Morocco recorded over 100,000 cases of bites and scratches, 33 deaths from rabies, 432 cases of hydatid disease, and 64 cases of visceral leishmaniasis.

According to the Moroccan Society for the Protection of Animals and Nature, over two million stray dogs currently roam the country, served by only 14 animal shelters.

Since 2019, the Interior Ministry has operated a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Health, ONSSA, and the National Order of Veterinarians, centered on the Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, and Release (TNVR) method.

Some MAD 260 million ($26 million) has been spent over five years on sterilization and shelter infrastructure. More than 20 centers have been planned, with facilities already operating or nearing completion in Casablanca, Tangier, Marrakech, Agadir, Oujda, and Rabat.

‘Are they going to campaign against the control of rats next?’

In May 2025, Minister Laftit announced an expanded national program exceeding MAD 1 billion – roughly $100 million – to create 130 communal hygiene offices serving 1,244 municipalities across 53 provinces, staffed by doctors, nurses, health technicians, and 130 veterinarians.

A mobile veterinary unit piloted in Kenitra now offers treatment, vaccination, and temporary shelter in areas lacking permanent infrastructure.

On July 10, the government approved a draft law covering both animal protection and public safety, presented by Agriculture Minister Ahmed Bouari – a legislative step the government described as a response to the “uncontrolled proliferation of stray animals” and the infectious disease risks they carry.

Government spokesperson Mustapha Baitas characterized the measure as a response to the “increasingly prominent challenge posed by stray animals, which now requires urgent state intervention due to their direct threat to public health and safety.”

The law also followed a British woman’s death from rabies in June, contracted after being scratched by a puppy during a visit to Morocco in February.

Speaking before parliament on July 22, Laftit denounced what he called a “coordinated media campaign” that had intensified since Morocco’s selection to host major sporting events, accusing foreign reports of spreading “false claims” and misrepresenting “the reality on the ground.”

The reports, he said, “focus heavily on stray dogs and accuse authorities of inhumane practices without acknowledging the real efforts made to protect public health and animal rights.”

Clark, for his part, drew the sharpest of conclusions. Pointing to Britain’s own practice of culling deer and other species, he asked why Morocco should be held to a different standard.

“Why shouldn’t the country clear the streets of these animals if it wants to?” he wrote. “Are they going to campaign against the control of rats next?” It was a question that, in his view, Western campaigners had no coherent answer to – and one Morocco’s $100 million response had already rendered largely academic.

The guilty dog barks first. Some things only carry weight when acknowledged from within. When a British voice in a British publication dismantles the Western campaign against Morocco, the argument lands differently.