The Egyptian veterinary authorities in Giza announced today in AL AKHBAR the nation wide newspaper that it is starting its campaign to poison cats and dogs, despite the fact that the Giza area had a spaying/neutering project done through Vier pfoten organization from Austria in cooperation with the Society for Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt (SPARE) and the Egyptian Society for Animal Friends (ESAF).
A 5 year neutering project with WSPA to neuter animals in this governorate was discussed and agreed with the head of the veterinary department in Egypt, the project is due to start in few weeks. They are using strychnine that is prohibited worldwide (harmful for people and the environment) and claim that the animal dies in 5 minutes which is not true as the animal sometimes suffer for hours or days before it dies or otherwise we would not have received all these numbers of poisoned cats and dogs at our shelters and saved them.
Following is the translation of the article and the Arabic article itself, please cross post and write to international organizations worldwide to help the animal groups in Egypt who are fighting this battle alone.
Please help us and do not ignore anything you can do to help those animals. Please help.
Click here to get the email addresses and contacts of Egyptian embassies worldwide.
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The veterinary authority of Giza governorate under the Chairman of Dr. Abdullah Badr established a committee to eliminate stray dogs and cats in Giza governorate due to complains from some governmental and private entities. The committee is carrying out 10 campaigns daily within the framework of a plan to cover the whole governorate; they are using 10 kg daily of strychnine for dogs and Temec for cats. They put half a gram of the poison on a piece of raw meat or fish weighing 70 grams and distribute in areas where the cats and dogs gather. The meat and fish for dogs inside private areas are provided by the owners of these areas and the dogs and cats in the street get the meat from the leftovers of the slaughterhouses. The members of the campaigns wear masks and each animal is surrounded by 4 people as the poisoned animal suffers after eating from severe stomach-ache and dies in 5 minutes. Afterwards police cars carry the dead animal to the burning house of the faculty of veterinary medicine of Cairo University to be burnt and later buried in the desert.
We are desperate for your help, animal organizations in Egypt are taking it upon themselves alone to carry on neuter programs and vaccinating strays to avoid this destiny for them, but it seems that all our efforts are not appreciated by the government or the vet authorities that are not carrying their main job of helping and treating animals instead of poisoning them. We are also calling upon Vier pfoten to protest to this action as many of the animals they worked on in May and June of 2005 will be the victims, not to mention that other areas as Hurghada and Sharm Sheikh and Dahab already had the same action carried on dogs that were already neutered and vaccinated.
Mona Khalil Secretary General
Society for protection of animal rights in Egypt (SPARE)
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