Pets

AGAINST a backdrop of pained barking, an emaciated pooch hobbles over to a dirt-covered animal pile, which it licks, bites and then tugs at — eager to pry off any flesh to stave off starvation.It’s a haunting moment now regularly seen in Morocco, stray dogs are resorting to cannibalism to survive after a terrifying “street cleanse”, while others are killed in ghoulish ways and left to rot. Animal rights campaigners claim stray dogs are being rounded up and then killedCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)One dog has resorted to cannibalism, as seen in footage supplied to The SunCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)They claim dogs have been shot, beaten with weapons, poisoned and stabbedCredit: ‘International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)A design of Morocco’s upcoming 2030 FIFA World Cup venue set to be built in CasablancaCredit: Courtesy Populous/Oualolou + ChoiThe north-west African nation is allegedly in the midst of a mass butchering spree to eradicate three million homeless dogs in time for the 2030 FIFA World Cup – despite vowing they’d ended the killings.Horrifying videos released by animal rights campaigners expose the horrors being unleashed on the streets of Morocco on the canines.Heartbreaking footage shows dogs being stabbed with poisonous sticks, violently impaled with hooks, left to bleed out from gunshot wounds and abandoned in pounds without food or water. It flies in the face of FIFA’s Bid Evaluation Report, which claimed Morocco had “outlined its commitment to the protection of animal rights” and since August had ruled “the culling of animals is prohibited in the country”.READ MORE FROM FEATURESHere The Sun refutes that with a damning dossier of evidence obtained on the ground through the International Animal Welfare Protect Coalition (IAWPC), which was also presented to FIFA.They say Morocco has violated their vow and lied to the footballing body. And that means their implementation as a host nation – alongside Spain and Portugal – is a “sham” and they must be stripped of their duties, campaigners say. The campaign calling for action from FIFA has been backed by celebrities including Downton Abbey star Peter Egan, music legend Gary Numan, conservationist Chris Packham and world-renowned conservationist Dr Jane Goodall.Most read in FootballChariots of Fire actor Peter tells The Sun: “Football is regarded as the ‘beautiful game’ and for it to be celebrated in such ugly circumstances is a betrayal of all ethics. FIFA must act now.“I’m absolutely appalled by the situation and the football-loving public will be too, the majority of people who love the beautiful game cannot endorse such cruelty by knowing about it, ignoring it and supporting the World Cup. “It’s almost impossible to get one’s head around why any country would choose to brutally slaughter millions of animals just to ‘tidy their streets’ for a football match. It’s inconceivable.“They choose the cheapest way of destroying these poor creatures too, often this is starving them to death or bludgeoning them with a weapon. It’s absolutely shocking.”Dog that mauled man to death ‘attacked schoolboy days earlier’ in East LondonOne stray dog being shot on the streets in MoroccoCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)One stray was dragged along the ground for a lengthy amount of time to cause injuryCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)’Absolute evil’The new footage, shot in the coastal city of Kenitra, shows animals waiting in dark and damp spaces to starve to death and canine cannibalism.Les Ward, President of the IAWPC, tells The Sun “absolute evil is going on in Morocco” and that cruel dog catchers are being dispatched to the streets to round up strays for slaughter. He explains: “The Moroccan Government hasn’t even got a clue what animal rights means. “They are setting up ‘dispensaries’ and ‘clinics’, which are killing stations to eradicate dogs, not help them.“At these killing pounds the dogs are thrown into a mass of frightened animals. They don’t feed them, they don’t give them water. If they do feed them it’s with poisoned bait that kills them.“Cannibalism is occurring. These dogs are being starved to death and as a result, start to eat one another. “Others are being killed, shot and poisoned and then thrown in the bin.”They don’t die immediately, they thrash around, crying as blood pours out of themLes Ward, IAWPC PresidentAnother heartbreaking clip shows several emaciated pooches cower in their alleyway-like prison, some lifelessly looking up at the camera, while others could be seen with wounds. A few had given birth.An IAWPC campaigner, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid persecution, told us: “The dogs are starving and dying. “It is a tiny space with up to 400 dogs cramped into it and they are living in their own waste. “Some of them die from sickness or poisoning, the others eat them because they are starving… the dogs are kept next to a slaughterhouse which uses them as food. “It is inhumane and unbearable.”World Cup ‘horror’Moroccan authorities are estimated to be killing 300,000 homeless dogs each year, despite it being ruled illegal since 2019.Supporters claim it will end rabies, which kills roughly 80 people a year, but campaigners argue culling won’t work.Instead, they insist their Trap Neuter Release (TNR) programme, currently being implemented by volunteers, is the only way to succeed. Previously it helped Goa, in India, become a rabies-free state.A poison-tipped stick that’s used to kill strays in MoroccoCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)A dead dog moments before it was feasted on by a starving strayCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)Animals filled a narrow alleyway in a ‘kill shelter’ in Kenitra, MoroccoCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)Les tells us: “Morocco’s approach will exacerbate the problem because rabies-infected dogs will continue to breed and more will move into the area. Killing is not the solution, it’s a horror.”Campaigners claim the culling has been ramping up since the 2023 Club World Cup, which was a ‘trial event’ from FIFA officials after Morocco lost an unprecedented five main tournament bids.Some oppose the slaughter – in 2022, a judge fined the Governor of the Nador Province 6,000MAD (£490) after discovering they had killed strays.The judge labelled it “uncivilised” and stated the brutality “which dates back to ancient times, are no longer acceptable”.In 2023, hundreds of strays and tagged dogs were killed in Tangier, which the founder of SFT Animal Sanctuary insisted was “because of FIFA’s visit” for the Club World Cup.She claimed the orders came “from the governor” and that all tagged dogs had to be “removed… from the posh areas around the stadium where FIFA will be”.’Inhumane killings’Now a World Cup host for 2030, campaigners allege the butchery is increasing and often the barbaric street killings are taking place in front of children. IAWPC footage shows men of the attacks by men in orange suits, including one who stuck his fingers up at the camera.Using “tong-like” implements, which have a painful debilitating effect, they pick up dogs the size of German Shepherds and throw them into vans pile with other dogs. One ‘dog catcher’ flips up his fingers at a cameraCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)They then use giant tongs to pick up a German Shephard and chuck it into a vanCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)Dead dogs being taken to the tip to be disposed of alongside rubbishCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)They are then taken to ‘holding’ centres where they are starved to death or “inhumanely killed”, we are told.One day is seen with blood trickling down from the midriff due to being cruelly dragged along the streets and beaten.Les says: “Some of the dogs are left to decompose on the street. Young children are seeing this. That’s traumatic for them and there are links between regularly seeing traumatising things and becoming violent in adult life.” Some dogs are killed with a stick that holds a syringe containing poison at the end, others are fed deadly bait by hand – both practices cause “considerable pain, suffering and lingering death”.Les explains: “Any vet will tell you killing a dog by strychnine is a cruel and lengthy process. They lure the dogs close by getting unsuspecting members of the public to tell them the dogs’ names.”Gun squads allegedly “shoot dogs around the clock with rifles and pistols” but cruelly they are “rarely killed outright” and left to bleed to death on the streets.he was banging on the door so hard and she was left standing in the street screaming as he was driven away. Louise Smith, victim of dog catchersLes adds: “These aren’t bullets that pass through they lodge in the body of dogs, meaning they don’t die immediately, they thrash around, crying as blood pours out of them.“I recently saw a harrowing photo of a dog seconds after its face was obliterated with a shotgun. It’s all extremely cruel.” Dog catchers Many of the animals are being rounded up by groups of dog catchers – and some seized them because they “know owners will bribe them to get their pets back”. Among them is Scottish mum Louise Smith, 46, who has paid to retrieve her six-year-old daughter Salma’s dogs “multiple times” but more recently she notes they are “all about killing.”“I tried to bargain with the dog catchers,” she says. “Salma was beside herself, she cut her knuckles. She was banging on the door so hard and she was left standing in the street screaming as he was driven away.”Dog catchers collect the animals and transport them to ‘kill centres’Credit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)Six-year-old Salma was devastated when her dog Bingo was taken by dog catchersCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)One man shoots a dog in the streetCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)FIFA ‘betrayal’Pressure is mounting against FIFA to take action – celebrities to join the campaign include Dr Jane Goodall, who’s famed for her work with wild chimpanzees. In a letter, she demanded urgent intervention, writing: “If you fail to act, however, FIFA will be known for its complicity in a horrific act of barbarity – on your watch.”There is simply no excuse for the awful campaign of cruelty that is being executed in football’s name.” Les says the IAWPC has sent letters to FIFA every week, supplied photo and video evidence as well as written testimony, only to receive “no reply, nothing whatsoever”. He says: “Absolute evil is going in Morocco and FIFA and its associations should know better. In the UK, anyone found shooting, poisoning, starving or clubbing a dog would be thrown in jail, because it’s a criminal offence. “This World Cup is being built on three million dead dogs and god knows how many traumatised children, that’s a blood scandal and raises the question of whether we should be sending our football teams there at all.“Allowing Morocco to host the World Cup has greenlit their killing groups to pick up and murder as many dogs as they can, as quickly as they can before 2030. “FIFA is complicit by maintaining the wall of silence. They are not stopping the government from killing their dogs, so they are party to it and complicit.”READ MORE SUN STORIESThe Sun contacted FIFA, officials in Morocco and the Moroccan embassy but received no response.Find out more about the IAWPC here or sign their petition.Dog catchers using metal tongs, which cause immense pain, to pick up poochesCredit: International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC)Morocco is preparing to host the 2030 World CupCredit: AFPFIFA President Gianni Infantino has been slammed by animal rights campaignersCredit: EPA More