Morocco’s Street Dogs: What’s Happening?

As Morocco prepares to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, the treatment of its free-roaming dogs has come under growing international scrutiny. A new law is now in force and a new government is taking shape, but questions remain about what is happening to dogs on the ground.

Morocco is estimated to have around three million free-roaming dogs. Managing a population of that size presents a genuine challenge. Rabies remains a public-health concern, dogs continue to reproduce without widespread sterilisation, and communities need a way to manage the population safely and sustainably.

The controversy surrounding Morocco is therefore not about whether its free-roaming dog population needs to be managed. It is about how that should happen.

Animal-welfare organisations have documented and reported dogs being shot, poisoned and captured in towns and cities across the country. The International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC), a coalition campaigning on the issue, says these methods have continued despite Morocco previously committing to a humane alternative. With the country preparing to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, those claims are now receiving considerably more international attention.

Morocco had already committed to a different approach

In 2019, Morocco signed an agreement intended to introduce TNVR, also known as CNVR: Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return. Under this approach, free-roaming dogs are humanely caught, sterilised and vaccinated against rabies before suitable animals are returned to their territories.

The agreement brought together Morocco’s Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Health, national food-safety authority ONSSA and the country’s veterinary profession. Authorities subsequently issued instructions encouraging local implementation, including prohibitions on using firearms and strychnine to control stray animals and on capturing identified dogs already participating in TNVR programmes.

There is a practical reason for this approach. Removing or killing dogs may reduce the visible population in one place temporarily, but it does not prevent other dogs from reproducing or moving into the territory that has been left behind. A sustained sterilisation programme aims to reduce reproduction over time, while vaccination increases protection against rabies within the existing population.

The difficulty is implementation. Animal-welfare organisations say the programme has not been applied consistently across Morocco and that dogs have continued to be killed in some municipalities despite the national commitment.

In July 2026, IAWPC wrote to FIFA after receiving new footage and other material from several Moroccan towns and cities. The coalition said footage from Kenitra appeared to show a dog being killed by injection, while material from Tinghir showed a dog being shot in a public square as other dogs fled. In Jerada, it reported that dogs had been shot during the early hours of 21 July and their bodies later removed from the streets using a mechanical digger. IAWPC also published details of what it said was a municipal purchase order for 1,125 hunting shotgun cartridges intended for the culling of dogs.

These accounts come from IAWPC and material supplied to the coalition, and not every incident described by campaigners has been independently verified. What makes the allegations particularly significant, however, is that Morocco had already made assurances about the treatment of free-roaming animals as part of its preparations for the World Cup.

Why the 2030 World Cup matters

Morocco will co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal. During the bidding process, the treatment of free-roaming dogs became part of FIFA’s assessment, with its November 2024 Bid Evaluation Report recording a statement from Morocco that the culling of animals had been prohibited in the country since August of that year.

IAWPC argues that the evidence it has gathered since then contradicts those assurances and has repeatedly called on FIFA to intervene. The World Cup has therefore become relevant for more than simply its ability to attract publicity. Morocco made animal-welfare representations during a formal bidding process for a tournament over which FIFA has considerable influence.

There is an important distinction to make here. It is often claimed online that Morocco is killing dogs specifically to clear its streets ahead of the World Cup. Campaigners believe preparations for 2030 are intensifying pressure to remove dogs from streets and areas being redeveloped, but establishing the motivation behind individual local culls is much harder. Morocco’s difficulties with free-roaming dogs, and reports of their killing, also predate the tournament.

That distinction does not make the reports less concerning. It simply means the strongest case rests on what can actually be established: Morocco has a large free-roaming dog population, it previously committed to humane population management, campaigners continue to report killings, and the country is now under greater international scrutiny because it is preparing to host one of the world’s largest sporting events.

A new law for Morocco’s street animals

The legal landscape changed again this summer. Law 19.25 was promulgated on 28 July 2026 and published in Morocco’s Official Bulletin on 10 August, introducing a new national framework for the management of stray animals.

The legislation provides for animal centres responsible for receiving free-roaming animals, assessing their health and behaviour, providing care, vaccination and sterilisation, and facilitating adoption. It also prohibits the unjustified killing of stray animals and establishes penalties for cruelty and abandonment.

Some of those provisions appear to move Morocco towards the more structured system animal-welfare organisations have long argued is necessary. Others have proved far more controversial.

One of the most contentious aspects of the law concerns what ordinary people can do for animals living on the street. Feeding, sheltering or treating stray animals in public outside the framework established by the legislation can result in fines of between 500 and 2,000 Moroccan dirhams. For rescuers and individuals who have historically cared for street animals themselves, that creates obvious concern about what happens when they encounter a dog that needs help.

There is also a gap between passing a law and having a fully functioning system. Parts of Law 19.25 depend on further implementing regulations, and Article 55 allows up to two years for those texts to be issued. Provisions that depend on them do not take effect until the relevant regulations are published.

IAWPC has criticised the legislation and raised concerns about how some of its definitions and exceptions could be interpreted, including the circumstances in which killing might be considered justified. Those are the coalition’s concerns rather than proof of how the law will ultimately operate, but they underline why the implementation stage matters.

A humane national system also requires considerably more than legislation. Dogs need to be caught safely; sterilisation requires veterinary facilities, trained staff, anaesthesia and appropriate recovery; vaccination needs to reach enough of the population to make a meaningful contribution to rabies control; and dogs participating in the programme need to be identifiable. All of that has to happen consistently, across different municipalities, for long enough to affect population numbers.

Morocco has invested in animal dispensaries and centres intended to support this work, and Law 19.25 gives municipal animal centres a formal role in vaccination, sterilisation, care and adoption. The test will be how consistently that infrastructure and the new legislation change what happens to dogs on the ground.

The dogs behind the numbers

A population measured in millions can become abstract very quickly, which is why the story of an individual dog can sometimes show what the statistics cannot.

Pancho was a free-roaming dog in Morocco who was rescued after being found in terrible condition. His story was shared with us by the woman and rescue organisation involved in saving him, and he survived.

One dog cannot tell us what happens to every free-roaming dog in Morocco, and Pancho’s experience should not be used to stand in for an entire national population. What his story does show is what can disappear when the discussion becomes entirely about legislation, population estimates and municipal policy. The animals affected by those decisions are individual dogs, capable of fear and pain but also attachment and recovery.

Pancho was fortunate enough to be found by someone able to help him. Many of the questions now surrounding Law 19.25 concern what happens when the next Pancho is found, and what systems will exist to help him.

A new government inherits the issue

There has been another significant change since Law 19.25 was passed. On 29 September 2026, King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as Morocco’s new head of government after her Authenticity and Modernity Party won the largest number of seats in the parliamentary election held six days earlier. She is the first woman to hold the position and is now tasked with forming a coalition government.

The timing puts the incoming administration in an important position. It inherits responsibility for implementing Morocco’s new stray-animal legislation at the same time as preparations for the 2030 World Cup continue, with some of the regulations required by Law 19.25 still to be developed.

There is no reason at this stage to assume that a change of government will mean a change in policy towards free-roaming dogs. What it does mean is that responsibility for the next phase now sits with a new administration. The coming months should begin to show how the legislation will operate in practice and whether the system that emerges resembles the humane population-management model Morocco committed to pursuing.

What can actually be done?

For anyone following the situation from outside Morocco, it can be difficult to know what useful action is possible. IAWPC is asking supporters to sign petitions, contact authorities and organisations with influence over the issue, share verified information and support calls for humane dog-population management. There are also organisations working directly with dogs in Morocco through rescue, veterinary treatment, sterilisation and vaccination.

We have put the current campaigns, contact details and practical ways to support dogs on the ground into a separate guide:

How You Can Help Morocco’s Street Dogs →

Beyond the World Cup

The World Cup has given this issue an audience it did not previously have. FIFA has influence, international attention can increase scrutiny, and a tournament watched around the world gives campaigners an opportunity to ask questions about what is happening in one of its host countries.

But 2030 cannot be the measure by which this is ultimately judged. Morocco will still have free-roaming dogs after the tournament ends. Communities will still need protection from rabies, dogs will continue to reproduce unless sterilisation reaches sufficient numbers, and municipalities will still need workable systems for managing animals safely and humanely.

The meaningful measure of progress will not be how many dogs visitors can see when they arrive for the World Cup. It will be whether Morocco has developed a system that protects people while allowing its free-roaming dogs to be managed humanely long after the tournament has ended.