With 100 stray dogs poisoned every month in Madaba, activists urge humane culling methods

AMMAN — With over 800 stray dogs culled over the past eight months in Madaba Governorate alone, animal welfare activists urged municipalities to follow humane methods in controlling the spread of street animals.

Prompted by the increasing spread of stray dogs in Madaba, 30km southwest of Amman, and a rising number of people attacked, Madaba Municipality is poisoning street dogs to reduce their population, Mayor Mustafa Maayah said on Monday.

“Dogs are spreading everywhere in Madaba. Many people are being hospitalised after being attacked by dogs, while many children don’t make it to school on a daily basis because they are afraid of stray dogs,” Maayah told The Jordan Times.

The municipality is placing poison in areas where stray dogs spread, according to the mayor, who noted that dead dogs are taken then to landfills, where they are buried.

“We are aware that animal welfare societies disapprove of our method in controlling the spread of stray dogs, but there are so many that we, frankly, are unable to control them,” Maayah said.

The mayor said the number of stray dogs has started increasing across the country, especially in the northern governorates, after the war in Syria started.

“We are seeing larger numbers and different breeds. We are also seeing stray dogs in the desert that have collars.… It is apparent that they have been abandoned and are running away from the war in Syria,” Maayah said.

Over the past eight months, Madaba Municipality culled 800 stray dogs, according to the mayor, who said that 100 dogs are being killed each month.

Ghazi Mustafa, the director of the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad in Jordan, said that municipalities are capable of following methods to control the spread of stray dogs, but they are choosing the “easy” way over the “humane” way.

“They are not only poisoning dogs, they are also shooting them down. Stray dogs all over the world are trapped and neutralised to control their spread and to make sure they pose no danger to the public,” Mustafa told The Jordan Times.

He underscored that the trapping and euthanising method is not costly, but requires a little extra “human effort”.

“Municipalities that poison dogs solve the problem for a few months only… while following the trapping and neutralising method solves the problem for at least 10 years,” Mustafa underscored.

He also called on municipalities to regularly collect garbage from the streets, noting that stray animals are attracted to trash in their search for food.