Nearly 30 associations of animal protection, citizens, protection of the environment, have signed a scathing petition for the authorities, asking for urgent decisions to stop the scourge.
A total of 27 associations stood up against the latest events related to stray animals that marked society. Moroccan animal protection organizations have expressed their “deep shock” And “outrage” in the face of the measures currently taken against stray animals in Morocco. Measures that damage the image of the Kingdom beyond the borders.
“Despite the High Instructions of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God assist Him, and the Framework Convention signed in 2019, under the aegis of the Ministry of the Interior, the TNVR program (capture, sterilization, vaccination and return to their original milieu) to end diseases such as rabies and other zoonoses, has still not been put into practice,” deplores the collective.
He indicates that the lack of implementation of this practice “leaves room for brutal and inhuman acts” and points out that currently “animal capture and slaughter operations (including puppies and kittens) throughout the country, including those already neutered, vaccinated and identified” take place in several cities of Morocco.
“We strongly disavow the inadmissible abuses of killing these animals, either by killing them by poisoning or shooting them with live ammunition, or by letting them die of hunger and/or thirst, or by capturing them in an appalling manner” , indicate these associations which have denounced the mistreatment of animals on many occasions.
This action “gives a totally degraded and depreciated image of our country in the eyes of those who witness it”say the organizations in a press release of which MoroccoLatestNews holds a copy, citing in the first place, the most vulnerable Moroccan citizens in particular, the children who are witnesses and traumatized by this violence against harmless animals.
“Visible to everyone, these scenes are also shocking to tourists who are, in spite of themselves and more and more often, frightened and indignant spectators… They then echo them with the media who denounce, in their turn and with force, this situation which does considerable harm to our country, to its tourist frequentation and to the vision of modernity in which it is part “complain these associations.
And they are not wrong, since many blogs dedicated to travel, influencers, and simple Internet users have mentioned and pointed out that Morocco “is not a country that respects animal rights”.
Note that these Western tourists are known to love animals, especially dogs and cats that they adopt and consider as members of their family and pay significant contributions to animal causes each year.
The Collectif des Associations Marocaines de Protection Animale thus calls for the immediate cessation of operations to capture and slaughter street animals, in all cities of the country, and the application of the TNVR program following the recommendations of competent institutions such as OMSA, FAO and WHO, which are radically opposed to the extermination of dogs, cats and equines.
It calls for the integration of animal protection associations, official and historical, in the whole process of the TNVR program, in a transparent way as well as the “immediate dissolution of all fictitious private or associative entities, which would not be real animal protection associations in the field”, and which are easily identifiable in view of the latest developments.
A message is addressed directly to the government, and it aims to urgently include animal welfare and the “One Health” approach in the objectives of sustainable development, and this, both in its national government agenda and in the environmental agendas. of the UN in 2030 and of the African Union in 2063, in order to guarantee the sustainability of ecosystems, to protect biodiversity as a whole, indicates the document.
The group calls for making it illegal to systematically kill animals that “would put an end to 60 years of the practice of culling – which have been a dismal failure in the eradication of rabies and other zoonoses and in the protection of public health”.