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Gulf News reported that Moroccan authorities have begun enforcing Law No. 19.25 on the protection and care of stray animals and prevention of related risks. The legislation, promulgated by royal decree on July 28 and published in the Official Gazette on August 10, bars individuals from feeding, housing or treating stray animals in streets, shared residential buildings and other public places except under authorised conditions. Article 44 sets fines between 500 and 2,000 Moroccan dirhams for such violations.
The law establishes a structured national framework that assigns collection and care responsibilities to designated centres where animals undergo identification, vaccination, treatment, sterilisation and assessment for return to suitable areas or adoption. It extends to tougher measures against abandonment and mistreatment, with deliberate public abandonment punishable by fines of 10,000 to 20,000 dirhams. Intentional killing, torture or mistreatment of a stray animal carries penalties of two to six months in prison and fines from 5,000 to 20,000 dirhams.
A BEACON assessment of rabies transmission in Morocco found the disease remains enzootic nationwide with roughly 400 animal cases reported each year, though figures indicate substantial underreporting. Domestic dogs represent the primary reservoir, and human rabies deaths reached 33 in 2024, a 65 percent rise above the historical average of 20 annual fatalities from 2000 to 2021. The National Food Safety Office launched a complementary free anti-rabies vaccination campaign for owned urban dogs and cats that runs through the end of September.
Morocco’s Interior Ministry has managed stray animal programmes since 2019 using the Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return approach that emphasises sterilisation and immunisation over euthanasia. The General Directorate of Territorial Communities directed more than 260 million Moroccan dirhams toward shelter construction, staff training and specialised vehicles between 2019 and 2024, with operational centres already functioning in Agadir, Casablanca and Salé. Studies place the national stray dog population between two and three million, against which annual dog vaccinations number fewer than 200,000.
Animal welfare groups have tracked the scale of the stray animal issue, with the SPA du Maroc estimating more than 22 million stray dogs killed by authorities since 1956 through analysis of population trends and municipal records. Casablanca officials reported collecting around 250,000 stray dogs annually as recently as 2022, highlighting the pressures that prompted the shift to regulated care under the new statute. The SPA has welcomed the law’s focus on vaccination and sterilisation programmes as a departure from past practices.
Coordination between the Interior Ministry, the National Food Safety Office and local municipalities will prove central to consistent application of the authorised care pathways. All interventions with stray animals must now proceed through the designated centres to meet veterinary and traceability standards set by the legislation. The combined measures align with sustained government investment aimed at lowering both stray populations and rabies incidence across the kingdom.
