Dear “His Majesty King Mohammed VI and Moulay El Hassan Daki , may God assist them in receiving this petition".

I am writing to you in regards to the mass slaughter that was announced to 'beautify' host city of Tangier ahead of Seattle Sounders' bid to win soccer's Club World Cup. We are very upset by the footage of a dogs being horrifically killed. This has now reignited the anger by the animal rights community and the controversial stance that the Moroccan government has on the handling of stray animals in the country. 

You should know that news of the appalling incident has been dominating social media, with images of an animals being murdered or running away injured.  Many of the posts spreading across the internet include with the hashtag #stopkillingdogsinmorocco.The travesty had reportedly been posted over 70,000 times in 12 hours. The story has now garnered national attention and was covered by The Daily Beast and the Daily mail and the Morocco World News.

In one horrifying video footage it shows  dogs collapsing and convulsing, being tossed, mortally-wounded, into waiting trucks on top of other dead bodies.  In another wrenching clip, a government assassin calls a black-and-tan shepherd by her name Rosa." "When she runs over to him, wagging her tail excitedly, he stabs her with a poison dart. As she lays dying, her companion, a shy sandy mongrel, runs to her side not knowing why she’s distressed, and nuzzles her nose trying to comfort her." Link to video:https://www.thedailybeast.com/brutal-dog-massacre-in-morocco-blamed-on-fifa-world-cup-bid​

Brutal Slaughter blamed on Fifa World Cup​

Stray dogs massacred with Poison darts to impress Fifa before World Cup Bid

You should know that that the council of the municipality of Tangier in the north of Morocco promised last year to start investing in humane and effective means to control the municipality’s stray animal population. These concerned an integral package, including vaccination, neutering and identification. Sadly, the leaders who made this order seem not to be concerned for the welfare of these stray animals or keeping this promise.  The Tangier mayor Mohamed Bachir Abdellaoui stressed last year that the initiative was intended as a humane solution to the large stray animal population in Tangier. In this way, the municipality demonstrates that it takes its obligations with respect to the protection of animal rights seriously. The Moroccan National Food Security Authority (ONSSA) and the local health service promised to launch a vaccination campaign against rabies. e local animal group has received no money from the government and is still running all the initiatives to vaccinate and neuter by doing their own fundraising.  It was promised that animals that have been vaccinated and neutered are identified, e.g. by an ear tag, so that citizens and authorities know these animals do not constitute a danger. In addition to its financial support, the municipality has also promised not to kill any stray animals identified by the ear tag.  That promise was also not kept. Many of the animals killed were animals who posed no danger to others and had an ear tag.

As of today, the killings have temporarily stopped we have read about a planned upcoming meeting with a a beloved animal rescue at the Wilaya. We feel this meeting was created to calm the noise and like before it will be nothing but lip service to appease Moroccan citizens, tourists, animal lovers and animal rescues alike. We feel it's only a matter of time when killings start again. We do not trust this meeting will amount to anything but promises that will just be broken again. We  demand that the city uphold its promise to not kill any animals that do not constitute a danger or have an ear tag.  Lastly, we demand a full investigation into this matter and hold the person responsible for giving these orders by prosecuting them in a court of law. In November of 2022, the governor of Nador Province was convicted as he went against the Ministry of the Interior and allowed stray dogs to be killed.The judge in the case stressed that developed societies are classed not only by how they treat people but how they treat their animals.  As a consequence, the governor was ordered to pay a fine of MAD 6,000 ($550).We request this same penalty or worse to whomever gave this order to kill the stray dogs. Those who harm the stray animals must be punished harshly. The government must protect the stray animals. You created a law in Morocco that said it was illegal to poison and shoot dog and that law must be upheld.The Tangier government is partially responsible for this for their servants too, the municipality workers are known to cruelly handle the stray animals based on petty invalid complaints. These workers must also be punished. 

The stray animals have every right to live on this planet earth just like we human beings. No one has the right to kill them or brutalize them. Dogs feel a wide range of feelings from happiness to misery. God entrusted the duty to take care of human nature upon the human being. Humans have the ability to ask for help, but dogs don't and they are kicked, poisoned and shot in Tangier and all of Morocco. We want the strays to be protected. 

We have contacted FIFA and so far we have gotten zero response. We strongly urge the sponsors of the World Cup Coca  who are Coca Cola, Adidas, Wanda Group, Hyundai Kia, Qatar airways and Visa to reconsider their sponsorship with Fifa due to Fifa's indifference in this matter.

Respectfully, 

Concerned Citizens