Following controversies associated with the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, another future tournament is already facing scrutiny. The 2030 FIFA World Cup, set years from now, has generated controversy due to one of its host countries being accused of animal rights violations.
Morocco, co-hosting alongside Spain and Portugal, has prompted significant concerns. The nation is accused of planning to eliminate stray dogs from its cities. Activists claim this plan aims to make urban areas and tourist locations safer and cleaner in preparation for international guests, fans, and tourists.
An estimated three million stray dogs reside on Moroccan streets, all potentially facing extermination.
Welfare organizations have released images and testimonies accusing Moroccan authorities of cruel methods to cull the dogs. These include clamping their necks, poisoning, or shooting them before disposing of the bodies in mass graves.
The International Animal Welfare and Protection Coalition (IAWPC) has presented evidence to FIFA, illustrating these allegations with pictures.
In a statement, the IWAPC remarked: “After the [World Cup confirmation], the extermination of the dogs has increased dramatically.
“As a result, the fear is that Morocco will now go ahead with their plan for the mass slaughter of three million dogs.”
Conversely, Omar Jaïd, President of the Provincial Tourism Council of Ifrane, explained to CNN last year that efforts to ‘clean the streets of stray dogs’ are part of the preparations for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
Ifrane, located about 40 miles from Fez Stadium, one of the proposed World Cup venues, is involved in these preparations.
Claiming to be a ‘dog lover’, Jaïd asserted that the dogs were not killed but rather removed from the streets and vaccinated at dispensary sites.
Nevertheless, witness accounts and charity reports tell a different story.
“Individuals armed with rifles go out into the streets, often at night, and shoot the dogs,” Les Ward, head of the IAWPC, stated.
Regarding vaccination sites, Ward asserts these are ‘municipal dispensaries where they are poisoned’, alleging the dogs ‘simply disappear.’
The IAWPC has initiated a campaign to halt ‘the violent and inhumane mass killing of street dogs’.
While some experts point out that stray dogs pose a ‘serious public health risk’ due to rabies transmission, Mohammed Roudani, head of the Public Health and Green Spaces Division at Morocco’s Ministry of Interior, emphasized that ‘around 100,000 people are bitten every year, 40% of them children under 15’.
Animal rights group PETA has alleged in a petition to the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco that the ‘Moroccan government is reportedly planning to exterminate 99% of all homeless dogs (approximately 3 million of them) across the country.’
The methods purportedly include shooting, burning, and starving the dogs.
The article has sought feedback from FIFA regarding this situation.