Stray dogs left for dead in Rabat center, despite MAD 12 million state-funded budget

Stray dogs have been silently starving and dying in a Rabat government funded stray dog center, which local authorities previously marketted as “very wonderful center” to Hespress.

In shocking new images and videos of the Arjat center, near the capital, the animals are shown emancipated, with bones and ribcages sticking out, kept in the same small areas as canine cadavres, which the barely functioning starved animals turn to for sustenance.

The center was built by the Rabat Company for Development with government funding, and is supervised by an association concerned with animal welfare.

Taxpayer funds and social investments were allocated to the project to solve the problem of stray dogs, based on a system of sterilization, vaccination and care for the street animals. Eventually, the recovered dogs would be returned to the areas they were found at, in compliance with recommendations from the World Health Organization.

However, the footage from the center shows the dogs received little to no medical care, with basic needs being ignored, resulting in the devastation now spreading on social networks, against a backdrop of public outcry.

The pictures and videos of the inhumane conditions of the dogs in the center was published by advisors of the Federation of the Left from the Rabat City Council, who said that the association that runs the dog center “has never been known to have any activity prior to taking over the management of the center.”

Animal rights activist in Morocco had previously come out to recommend the center’s management be left to experienced entities with a proven track record in the field, but local authorities had seemingly decided otherwise.

Rabat authorities suggested the “Moroccan Association for the Protection of Animals and the Environment” for the management of the center, and eventually signed an agreement worth a whopping MAD 12 million with the non-profit, for three years’ management of the center.

The association’s state-funded budget would allow for the maintenance of the center’s premises, the care, vaccination and sterilization of the rounded strays.

Mayor of Rabat Asmaa Rhlalou had previously said the association includes veterinarians that will be at the center’s services, adding that its members are competent to deploy the efforts needed to counter the dangers stray dogs pose to residents of Rabat, Sale and Temara.

In a premonitory tone, Rhlalou previously assured Hespress AR that the center will operate in full transparency, denying all doubts of corruption in the communes’ decision to grant the center’s management responsibility to the newly established association.

The regional animal dispensary in El Arjat was established as a pilot project for the management of the stray dog and cat population, whose success would serve as a model for a national system of operation.