Fury is mounting on the day of football’s most powerful gathering as campaigners warn that FIFA, world football’s governing body, is disgracefully “failing to act” over the mass killing of street dogs in Morocco ahead of the 2030 World Cup and by so doing, is tarnishing and bringing shame on world football and the so-called “beautiful game”.
The 76th FIFA Congress, is set to take place in Vancouver, where the organisation’s supreme decision-making body, the FIFA Council, together with representatives from all its 211 member associations will come together and seek to shape the future of the global game. But as delegates prepare to meet, they do so against a backdrop of growing global criticism, that world football and the FIFA 2030 World Cup, through Co-Host Morocco is being shamed and stained by cruelty .
At the centre of the row in Vancouver, is the likely mass shooting, poisoning, catching and inhumanely killing of some 3-million street and owned dogs in Morocco. Since Morocco’s ratification as a Co-Host by the FIFA Associations in December 2024, along with Portugal and Spain of the 2030 World Cup, the killing of dogs in Morocco to ‘cleanse the streets’ has increased dramatically and continues to this day. A figure of 500,000 dogs being slaughtered annually is now given.
As a result of its cruel killing programmes, Morocco is in breach of all recognised and acceptable standards in relation to the humane treatment of dogs. Furthermore, as this violence is often witnessed by children, Morocco is also in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 19) and supporting General Comment 26 issued by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which states: “Children must be protected from all forms of physical and psychological violence and from exposure to violence, such as domestic violence or violence inflicted on animals”.
In addition, adults, supposed to be ‘safeguarded’ under the protection of the UN Convention on Human Rights, are being harassed and intimidated if they dare to speak out. Furthermore, whilst their children look on, women are also being assaulted by members of Morocco’s ‘killing teams’, simply for using their mobile phones to record the violence.
World anger and frustration intensified recently, following the emergence of shocking verified footage captured in Marrakesh at the end of March 2026, during grim ‘clean up’ preparations for a FIFA inspection visit. The distressing video, shows municipal workers using clamp-like devices to pin terrified dogs to the ground before dragging and throwing them into trucks as they howl in agony.
Campaigners say these images lay bare what they describe as the brutal reality behind Morocco’s World Cup preparations and claim, the violence escalates whenever international scrutiny increases. Yet FIFA has known this for over 18-months now and does nothing as tournament hosts, to bring their Co-Host Morocco’s inhumanity and the damage caused to world football, to an end. By remaining silent, FIFA is complicit in the killings.
The Coalition also argues that commitments made in FIFA’s own bid evaluation process for the 2030 tournament by Morocco, that ‘since August 2024, the culling of animals had been prohibited in the country’, amounted to a breach of contract between FIFA and Co-Host Morocco, placing FIFA under increasing pressure as it gathers in Canada.
Moroccan authorities insist that stray dogs are collected, sterilised and vaccinated before being released. But the IAWPC, a coalition of more than 80 organisations including leading charities and campaign groups, says this is a sham to deflect the criticism that grows by the day. There is no evidence of any such meaningful return programme, pointing instead to graphic footage from inside municipal facilities, which function as “killing stations”.
The IAWPC has been campaigning for an end to the mass killing of free-roaming dogs in Morocco, urging authorities to adopt humane and internationally respected science-led methods such as Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return (CNVR).
Les Ward MBE, Chairman of the IAWPC, said Morocco is a country under sustained pressure, but patience among campaigners is running out: “It is clear that the awarding of the 2030 FIFA World Cup to Morocco, despite the warnings we gave, was a political decision from the very top of FIFA. We warned FIFA, as far back as 2023, that awarding the World Cup to Morocco without strict conditions would lead to a nightmare scenario, and that is exactly what has happened.
“What we are now seeing is increased killing, child, adult and animal trauma, intimidation and threats. The reality on the ground in Morocco is a living nightmare for dogs, but also for its people, including children, who are forced to bear witness this every single day.”
The IAWPC says it has repeatedly called on FIFA to intervene and has been in conversation with the organisation on a regular basis, urging the governing body to issue a public condemnation and to ensure Morocco implements humane population control measures in line with international standards. In doing so, Les Ward said: “Since the IAWPC formally began its campaign in October 2024 and to this day, we have always made it clear, this campaign is not about stopping Morocco being a co-host of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, it’s all about stopping the mass killing of the dogs and the trauma of its people.
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