MP calls for collecting stray dogs in farms to limit their spread

CAIRO – 3 March 2019: “The only solution to limit the spread of stray dogs in Cairo is to collect them in farms in the desert and castrate them which is a costly process,” Secretary of the Parliament's Local Administration Committee Mohamed al-Dami told Egypt Today.

Dami added that many people do not approve of killing stray animals and the government cannot export them as no country wants to import them.

The Local Administration Committee will hold a meeting on Monday, March 4 with officials from the ministries of housing, finance, health, and planning to discuss this problem.

In an interview with DMC on Oct. 28, MP Mohamed Abu Hamed said that poisoning dogs or shooting them is unconstitutional, adding that article 45 of the constitution stipulates that the state is committed to keeping animal welfare.

Abu Hamed said that animal welfare is a constitutional entitlement and is not optional, stressing that a Harvard University researcher designated Egypt as one of the few countries respecting animal rights.

Due to the increasing number of reported dog attacks, a number of advocates of animal rights have called for regulating the import and selling of foreign dog breeds, besides earlier calls to avoid killing stray dogs to decrease their growing number.

Social media users were angered after a video has been circulated showing two domestic dogs attacking a nine-year old child in New Cairo, causing him several injuries
For her part, animal rights activist Mona Khalil referred that ministries and concerned authorities have been called on since 2000 to remove garbage in the streets, which causes the spread of dogs.

A report by Egypt's General Organization for Veterinary Services revealed that a total of 1.392 million people have been bitten by stray dogs from 2014 to 2017.