Why is Morocco killing thousands of dogs ahead of the 2030 World Cup?

Every four years, there's an unmissable moment for football fans: the World Cup . A moment when the entire world stops for celebrations, chants, and friendly hugs after a last-minute goal. But behind the lights of the stadiums , a shadow looms over the streets and suburbs: that of stray dogs . In several host countries (from Brazil to Qatar , from Ukraine to Russia), the approach of major sporting events has coincided with the adoption of drastic measures to "clean up" cities , even at the cost of the lives of thousands of animals.

The official justification is always the same: protecting public safety and the city's international image . Local authorities fear that the presence of strays could undermine urban decorum or pose a health risk.

“They kill dogs as if it were a sport.”

The latest case of this kind comes from Morocco, co-host of the 2030 World Cup along with Spain and Portugal. " While I was walking to school, I saw pools of blood in the streets . At a certain point, I realized it wasn't normal to start the day trampling on corpses. They kill dogs as if it were a sport ," a source who preferred to remain anonymous told CNN .

“People armed with guns go out on the streets, often at night, and shoot dogs. Others are rounded up and taken to municipal dispensaries where they are poisoned. They simply disappear,” continued Les Ward , head of the International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition .

A question of image

Those who defend these operations often speak of "necessity," but the question remains: is it ethical to sacrifice thousands of animal lives for image reasons ? For Mohammed Roudan , head of the Public Health and Green Spaces Division of the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, the answer is yes, as he himself declared to the American television channel: "Stry dogs pose a serious risk to public health, especially because they carry rabies. Every year , approximately 100,000 people are bitten , 40% of whom are children under 15."

The legislative vacuum

However, it should be remembered that since 2019, the Moroccan government, thanks to the TNVR (Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Release) program , has been carrying out mass vaccinations in complete safety, without euthanizing any animals. The main problem is that "there is currently no law against the killing of stray dogs, and there is a legislative vacuum because municipalities, not the national government, are responsible for managing these animals," Roudani continued.

The silent massacre

Meanwhile, many organizations have made their voices heard. During the Manchester City-Wydad match in the Club World Cup, two PETA activists entered the pitch with a sign that read, in English, "Morocco: Stop Shooting Cats and Dogs." So could football, a symbol of passion and global unity, become complicit—or worse, instigator—of a silent massacre?