Iraq
Stray dogs are seen at a shelter in Erbil in October 2020. File photo: Bilind T. Abdullah/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Around 400 dogs were poisoned and killed in three days by officials and veterinarians in the town of Sinune, Nineveh province, the chief veterinarian told Rudaw on Saturday, claiming the dogs had “disturbed” the people.
“In the past three days, we started putting out poison in coordination with Shingal police so that the stray dogs eat it and die. This is because they had disturbed people in the region,” said Khalaf Haidar, head of veterinarians in Sinune.
Sinune is located in the province’s northern Shingal district.
After three days of setting out poison, “400 dogs have died,” said Haidar.
Head of veterinaries in Mosul, Dr. Oday al-Abadi, said the problem of stray dogs had worsened in the wake of the war with the Islamic State (ISIS).
“In Nineveh, after the liberation of the city from Daesh [ISIS], the stray dogs increased in large numbers and they started eating corpses of Daesh, so they became unbelievably aggressive,” he said.
Stray dogs are frequently attacking people, even killing a child, he added.
Activists in the Kurdistan Region condemned the poisoning of dogs and instead urged authorities to neuter the animals.
“Yes, we do think that stray dogs have increased in numbers, and yes we see that in some places they have created problems and danger. But what the head of the municipalities and the mayors and even the people don’t know is that this is not a solution. This is the worst type of solution for this problem,” said Jutyar Zhahlayi, a professor and founding member of Sulaimani-based PAK organization for animal protection.
“We have started a project called TNR (trap–neuter–release), meaning catching those dogs, neutering them, then sending them back to their environment,” said Zhazhlayi.
PAK organization has neutered around 100 dogs in the past two and a half months in Sulaimani.
“Killing stray dogs is a huge disaster,” said Sleman Tamar, head of Kurdistan Organization for Protecting Animal Rights in Duhok. “In this age and time, killing dogs in this way and manner is against every principle and law on animal rights internationally.”
Iraqi law allows the killing of stray animals.
Additional reporting by Rawchi Hassan and Rozhan Abubakr
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