With local media reporting on plans to build 130 mass dog-control centres across Morocco, animal welfare groups are warning the so-called Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Release (TNVR) facilities, are being seen by many of the Moroccan public, as the new covert killing stations, designed to eliminate free-roaming dogs ahead of the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
The International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC), a consortium of 27 organisations including the RSPCA, Dogs Trust, PETA and In Defense of Animals, says Morocco’s rollout of these so-called ‘clinics’ in World Cup-linked host cities, including Marrakesh, Agadir and Oujda, bears none of the hallmarks of a genuine animal welfare initiative.
Instead, the IAWPC claims the centres are more than likely to be used as mass extermination hubs, with dogs captured in brutal fashion and either killed or left to die in squalid, locked compounds.
Les Ward MBE, chairman of the IAWPC, said, “It feels abundantly clear that Morocco is not planning to carry out any meaningful TNVR at these sites. What we are seeing instead is a vast, state-funded infrastructure to round up and quietly kill behind closed doors, dogs under the pretence of humane management.”
Footage gathered by the coalition shows dogcatchers using metal neck clamps and makeshift snares to seize terrified animals from the streets, methods campaigners have likened to “medieval torture”. In several cases, dogs have been filmed writhing in pain as they are dragged across concrete, bleeding and howling.
The scale of the operation is unprecedented. According to IAWPC research, no other country with a free-roaming dog population has attempted to create TNVR centres on this level. The large carrying capacity of each facility, combined with the lack of sufficient experienced numbers of staff, transparency and repeated refusals to allow international monitoring, has raised fears that the entire programme is a thinly veiled slaughter within what some are calling – ‘centres of death’.
Despite public outcry and offers from the Coalition to help Morocco establish a truly ethical humane dog management programme, including expert-led sterilisation campaigns, community engagement and international funding, the authorities have remained silent. Verified reports continue to emerge of dogs dying slowly after being rounded up and locked inside remote compounds without food or water.
Campaigners say that in many areas, dogs are being shot or poisoned in full view of the public, including tourists and children, leaving communities traumatised and international visitors horrified. Graphic images have emerged of dogs lying dead in the streets, some foaming at the mouth after ingesting toxic bait.
IAWPC members are now demanding urgent access to the facilities to assess welfare conditions and advise on humane alternatives. They argue that a genuine TNVR approach could position Morocco as a global leader in ethical humane dog population management, but only if the current killing and inhumanity is abandoned.
“Morocco has a choice” said Ward. “Reject violence and stop the killing. Then together we can work and implement a world-class system that respects and saves lives. Or continue down the dark path that brutally takes lives, traumatises children, permits unfettered violent assaults on its citizens, brings world condemnation and at great cost to the country’s image and tourist industry. As can be seen in this current messed up world, violence should never be the solution. Humanity is and will always be the solution. The animals, the children and people of Morocco deserve compassion, not cruelty. The Government of Morocco should seize the opportunity and change its ways”.
The IAWPC is now calling on FIFA to ignore the propaganda and take a closer look at what is happening on the ground in Morocco. FIFA has been misled for far too long.
