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Britons help rescue hundreds of dogs
from squalid death in holiday resort
A GROUP of British expats have
saved scores of street dogs from a
gruesome death at a squalid com
pound in a Moroccan resort.
The Mail on Sunday last week
witnessed appalling scenes in
the municipal site in Agadir, a city
that attracted 100,000 British
tourists in 2018.
There was outrage when footage
appeared on social media last year
showing dead and dying dogs in
the streets after marksmen were
hired to shoot strays ahead of a
visit from football officials assess
ing Morocco’s 2026 World Cup bid.
Lucy Austin, 36, founded Morocco
Animal Aid (MAA) in 2015 and
with the help of Britons including
Fran Bell, from Plymouth, the char
ity now cares for more than 100
dogs in its leafy sanctuary.
There are an estimated two
million street dogs in Morocco.
Charities accuse the authorities
of failing to sterilise and vaccinate
the animals against rabies and
other diseases, which experts say
is more effective than any exter
mination programme.
The smell from the pound, about
two miles inland from Agadir’s
crescentshaped beach and cafe
strewn promenade, greeted Mail
on Sunday reporters long before the
pitiful sight of 130 dogs – many half
starved with protruding ribs – in a
cramped quadrangle carpeted with
faeces. Manager Baada Al Mahjoub
provided a tour of the facilities as
the dogs whined and yelped.
Spotting our cameras, he split
open a large sack of biscuits pro
vided by MAA and scattered it
across the filthy compound. Until
a few weeks ago, even this meagre
ration was not available.
Showing recent images of two
dogs eating the entrails of another
which had died in the pound, Ms
Austin, a former teacher from
Australia, said: ‘There is no plan for
these dogs – they are just left here
to die. They’re only getting food
because we bring it in for them. We
often have to take a dog and removeit for its own safety because the
stronger ones will kill a weak one.’
Asked why the dogs were allowed
to kill each other, Mr Al Mahjoub
shrugged and said: ‘It happens –what can we do?’ Then
he dragged a large,
boisterous dog by the tail and
swung it through the air.
Ten miles away, rescued dogs
lolled happily in the garden of the
MAA’s base near the village of Tam
raght. The charity would like tofollow World Health Organisation
guidelines to vaccinate and release
them, but for now it is struggling to
raise the money to meet vets’ fees
and does not want to risk seeing the
animals die in the pound.
l For more information on its
work, see moroccoanimalaid.com.From Nick Craven
IN AGADIR, MOROCCO
Saved by
the angels
of Agadir
MERCY MISSION: Fran Bell, left, and Lucy Austin with two dogs
they have saved. Left: Starving dogs at the Agadir pound last weekPHILIP IDEV2 The Mail on Sunday September 1 • 2019