Morocco Adopts Humane Strategies to Tackle Stray Dog Population

Morocco is implementing modern, humane methods to address its stray dog and cat population, a pressing issue that poses significant challenges to public health and sanitation. The Ministry of Interior, through the Directorate General of Local Authorities (DGCT), has intensified its efforts by providing increased legal, financial, and technical support to local communities. This support includes an annual budget allocation of nearly 70 million dirhams ($7.3 million) over the past five years to procure vehicles equipped with cages and animal capture equipment.

A landmark partnership established in 2019 has focused on a humane approach to managing stray dogs through collaboration among the DGCT, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the National Office for Sanitary Safety of Food Products (ONSSA), and the National Order of Veterinarians. This initiative involves capturing stray dogs, sterilizing them to prevent overpopulation, vaccinating them against rabies, treating them for parasites, and then releasing them back into their original environments. This process, carried out in specialized dispensaries like the one located in Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, aligns with international animal protection standards set by the World Health Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health.

The Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) approach, which captures, treats, and releases stray animals, is being implemented across Rabat, Salé, and Témara. This method not only helps control the stray animal population but also ensures public safety. To facilitate this, the Ministry of Interior has allocated 80 million dirhams ($8.4 million) up to July 2024 for the construction and equipment of new animal dispensaries nationwide. Additionally, a program to create 130 communal health offices by 2025 aims to achieve nearly 100% national coverage, significantly improving the management of stray animals and rabies prevention.

To address the absence of precise data on the number of stray dogs in Morocco, efforts are underway to conduct a census in partnership with the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute. The Ministry also allocates funds annually for the acquisition of vaccines and rabies serums.

For many years, Morocco has dealt with its stray dog population through localized culling, or the killing of stray animals, as a means to address public health concerns and prevent the spread of diseases like rabies. This approach has been seen as a quick and immediate solution to the issue of stray animals roaming the streets. However, despite the efforts to control the population through culling, the problem of stray dogs continues to persist in many parts of the country.

The issue has also gained significant attention in the Moroccan media and civil society. In November 2022, the governor of Nador was convicted of killing stray dogs after local animal welfare activists filed a complaint against him. In 2023, the issue again attracted headlines after a dog shelter in Al Arjat, near Rabat, was found to starve the dogs in their care.

Evidence from numerous studies shows that culling does not work as a long-term solution to reducing stray dog populations. When dogs are culled, it creates a temporary decrease in the population. However, this often leads to a rebound effect, where the remaining dogs reproduce more rapidly to fill the ecological niche left vacant. This cycle leads to a continuous need for culling, which is not only costly but also inhumane.

Moreover, culling does not address the underlying issues that lead to stray dog populations, such as uncontrolled breeding and the abandonment of pets. Morocco’s new approach, deploying scientifically proven methods for reducing stray dog populations, focuses on addressing the root causes of the problem.

The Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) method, which involves capturing stray dogs, sterilizing them, vaccinating them, and then releasing them back to their original environments, has been shown to be highly effective. According to research, TNR can significantly reduce stray dog populations over time and improve the overall health of the animals (Levy, Gale, & Gale, 2003). Other successful methods include public education campaigns about responsible pet ownership, spaying and neutering initiatives, and the establishment of animal shelters and adoption programs, all of which help to control the population in a humane and sustainable way.

While Morocco has traditionally used localized culling to attempt to manage stray dog populations, this method has proven to be ineffective and unsustainable in the long run. Humane approaches, such as TNR, offer a more ethical and, more importantly, effective solution by addressing the root causes of the problem.