Egypt’s stray animal crisis has remained a longstanding issue, with the Egyptian Federation for Animal Welfare estimating that around 100 million stray and street cats roam the country, alongside an estimated 15 million stray dogs. The absence of comprehensive animal welfare legislation in Egypt remains a significant cause of the ongoing stray animal crisis. Compounding this issue is the country’s waste management challenges, where inadequate garbage disposal systems and open piles of waste provide stray animals with easy access to food, sustaining and increasing their numbers. Additionally, the absence of widespread national spay and neuter programs allows stray populations to grow unchecked, as there are no coordinated efforts to humanely control their reproduction. While local initiatives have made efforts to address the issue, such as the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program in Maadi, which has sterilized over 5,000 cats and 1,000 dogs since its launch in 2014, these efforts are insufficient to curb the growing stray population nationwide These interconnected factors have contributed to the persistence and escalation of the stray animal crisis in Egypt. While Egypt’s Constitution states that the state is obligated to ensure the humane treatment of animals, this…
From Abandonment to Overpopulation: Understanding Egypt’s Stray Animal Crisis
December 18, 2024
