Morocco Grapples with Deadly Stray Dog Attacks as Tourist Dies

Despite numerous calls, the problem of stray dogs persists to the great dismay of Moroccans but also of foreigners. In the space of a week, two people were attacked by a pack of dogs. The first, a 44-year-old French tourist staying in a hotel establishment in El Argoub, near Dakhla, succumbed to her injuries after being attacked by stray dogs.

The second stray dog attack took place in the Mesnana district of Tangier. The victim is an elderly man. He did not meet the same fate as the French woman. He got out of it seriously injured. His family filed a complaint with the police, accompanied by a video allowing the identification of the dogs that attacked him. Shortly afterwards, the owner of the dogs was arrested. He is accused of possessing prohibited dog breeds. Pending the completion of the investigation conducted under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor’s office, the accused was placed in custody.

These various attacks show how urgent it is to solve this major social problem. The actions taken, in particular the ban on the slaughter of stray animals and the sterilization of stray dogs by the government, have so far shown their limits.