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A32 FEATURE
Friday 21 February 2020
Egypt's once-reviled street dogs get chance at a better life

By ISABEL DEBRE may appear ruthless, but
Associated Press Shehata insists it's for the
CAIRO (AP) — Karim Hegazi best, and keeps the dogs
spends his days in a Cairo rabies-immune for a year.
clinic taking care of ani- Volunteers also spay and
mals long considered a neuter strays at the clinic.
menace in Egypt. The dogs are dropped off
Stray dogs roam in almost where they were caught,
every Cairo neighborhood with a notch cut in their
— lurking in construction ear to show they've been
sites, scavenging through sterilized. The model is be-
trash and howling night- ing replicated in at least
ly atop parked cars. The five central Cairo districts,
government says there's where local groups say
around 15 million of them. they've seen dog popula-
They bite some 200,000 tions stabilize or decline
people a year, according and the threat of rabies
to the World Health Organi- wane, although the gov-
zation, and spread rabies, ernment doesn't make ra-
one of the world's most le- bies infection figures public.
thal diseases. Vigilante hunters still scatter
And if that wasn't reason poison in dog food and re-
enough to feel revulsion quest government extermi-
toward dogs, a famous Is- nators, said Rasha Hussein,
lamic saying attributed to a Maadi resident who runs a
the Prophet Muhammad vet training center outside
warns that angels won't Cairo. But she said efforts
enter your home if there's a In this Feb. 14, 2020 photo, Egyptian Vets for Animal Care, the country's first spay and neuter pro- by groups like EVAC have
dog inside. gram, mark a puppy with red paint after giving it a rabies shot, in Cairo, Egypt. encouraged compassion.
Yet after centuries of stig- Associated Press Residents now coordinate
ma, the street dogs of Egypt meal deliveries and medi-
are finding popular ac- hotels, cafes and grooming for Animal Care, or EVAC. solution to rabies or to over- cal checks for ear-tagged
ceptance, and along with emporiums are sprouting It's the country's first spay population," said Shehata. dogs that have become a
it, surging grassroots sup- up in major Egyptian cities. and neuter program, also A toxic substance called ci- mainstay in their areas. Just
port. That includes adop- Fueled by the rise of social based in Maadi. trinin is used to kill off dogs, five years ago, EVAC vol-
tion and medical care, as media, enthusiasm for Cai- The government organi- but most of it ends up seep- unteers were chased out of
well as spaying and neu- ro's dogs is "moving beyond zation did not respond to ing into soil and cement, the neighborhood.
tering to keep them from snob culture," said local ad- questions about its policy. poisoning gardeners, gar- Shehata says his teams
producing more puppies vocate Amina Abaza. But in a recent report, it bage workers and children have treated some 10,000
on the streets. Volunteers A Facebook forum for vet described street dogs as playing in the street. Culling stray dogs over the last few
armed with giant fishing recommendations explod- a "time bomb that threat- street dogs doesn't stop the years. Egypt's push follows
nets and tranquilizer darts ed into a community of ens our children," and de- spread of disease either, he successes in similar devel-
embark on regular missions 13,000 pet lovers trading fended the "merciful killing added, as over 70% of the oping countries. Animal
to catch, vaccinate and stray rescue stories. Dozens of dogs that are harmful to stray population must be welfare proponents hope
sterilize dogs before letting of new shelters coordinate people," citing Islamic law. vaccinated to attain herd these gains can spark a
them loose. adoptions online, flooding After the French invaded immunity. worldwide movement.
These efforts are making Instagram feeds with imag- Egypt in 1797, Napoleon Shehata described his Turkey's cities, which once
inroads against the prevail- es of abandoned puppies. Bonaparte's troops spent group's spaying and neu- promoted systematic
ing government policy of What has surfaced online two nights shooting all of tering efforts as "a more hu- slaughter of street dogs,
extermination by poison. is spilling into the streets. Cairo's street dogs because mane, scientific, and effec- now provide strays with
"I've seen a major shift ... Some of Cairo's more well- of their raucous noise. Ac- tive way," to regulate the government-sponsored
people are seeing a value to-do districts are mobiliz- cording to American histo- country's strays. His group medical evaluations, ster-
in strays," said Hegazi, 32, ing spay and neuter teams rian Juan Cole, they were kicked off Egypt's first mass ilization and shelter. Indian
from his veterinary hospi- to counter what advocates likely employed as infor- rabies vaccination drive provinces historically rav-
tal in the upscale suburb describe as gruesome gov- mal watchdogs in the city's this month, inspired by the aged by rabies, where She-
of Maadi. He says he's no ernment methods to con- winding alleys. Major dog WHO's goal to eliminate hata trained, have driven
longer treating just foreign trol the dog population. eradication campaigns in human deaths from dog- down death rates through
pooches, but also a grow- The General Organization Egypt stemmed from the transmitted rabies by 2030. coordinated campaigns.
ing number of adopted for Veterinary Services, city's explosive growth in On a misty morning last But leading veterinarians
"baladi" dogs, the once-re- an arm of the agricultural the early 1800s, when dogs weekend, teams of volun- say Egypt's efforts still lack
viled Egyptian street breed. ministry, routinely sends became scavengers de- teers scampered after the state funding or a legal
Even pious Muslim clients authorities to kill strays by pendent on Cairo's ubiqui- wild dogs in Maadi, bolting framework to protect ani-
are taking in street dogs. scattering poison in streets tous mounds of garbage, down wide boulevards and mals, meaning the future
Hegazi says they often rec- overnight, according to said Alan Mikhail, professor trash-littered train tracks. A of the country's street dogs
oncile their religious beliefs a dozen activists and resi- of Ottoman history at Yale cacophony of yelps and remains uncertain.
and love of dogs by keep- dents. They say they've University. As part of a pub- barks filled the air as ter- "We will do our best to
ing them in grassy yards or woken up to find carcasses lic hygiene push, authori- rified dogs were trapped reach our targets," said
on rooftops. piled on curbs, or sick dogs ties trapped, shot and poi- in nets, then injected with Hegazi while carrying his
Egypt's upper and middle wailing in distress. soned dogs en masse. vaccines. Neighbors wo- next patient, barking and
classes have increasingly "It's a horrible way to die," These days, a consensus is ken by the noise watched snorting, into the exam
adopted Western-inspired said Mohamed Shehata, emerging among experts from their balconies in be- room. "But it'll take a much
ideas of dog ownership. Pet founder of Egyptian Vets that "poison is not a real wilderment. The method longer time."q