Packs of stray dogs pose a dilemma in Tunisia - in pictures

Residents have complained of a rise in the stray dog population, but animal rights groups urge more humane solutions than mass culling.

Stray dogs at a shelter in Bouhnash, in the governorate of Ariana near the Tunisian capital, Tunis. Packs of stray dogs are a common sight in North African cities. All photos: AFP

Strays in Tunis. The feral animals are in the crosshairs after the deaths of two schoolchildren, one of them in Algeria, but animal rights groups are calling for more humane solutions than a simple mass cull.

Tunisian authorities opened an inquest last week into the death of a 16-year-old girl after she was mauled as she walked to school in the coastal city of Gabes.

A Tunis municipal employee trying to catch stray dogs in El-Menzah 9 area of the Tunisian capital, before taking the animal to the Belvedere sterilisation centre.

Strays caught in Tunis are taken to a centre to be spayed or neutered. But veterinarian Abdelmoumen Boumaza says municipalities in Algeria use only one method to deal with the problem, 'capture and slaughter', sometimes by electrocution.

Another problem posed by strays is rabies. Authorities in Tunis say they want to vaccinate up to 80 per cent of strays in the capital, and have distributed anti-rabies jabs to municipalities free of charge.

The animal protection group PAT says each of Tunisia's 350 municipalities should have a centre to deal with strays, yet there only only six in the entire country.

Dr Mahmoud Laatiri and his trainee spaying an animal at the Belvedere sterilisation centre in Tunis. The number of stray dogs seems to be increasing – dogs are gregarious by nature and tend to live in groups. In the streets, roundabouts, squares and around rubbish bins, they roam in packs sometimes comprising dozens of individuals.

Stray dogs are pictured in a shelter of the animal protection association in Bouhnash in the governorate of Ariana near the Tunian capital Tunis, on February 9, 2022. - Packs of stray dogs, a common sight in North African cities, are in the crosshairs after the deaths of two schoolchildren, but animal rights groups urge more humane solutions than mass culling. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)

Mahmoud Laatiri, a municipal veterinarian, prepares to spay a bitch at the Belvedere sterilisation centre in Tunis. The increase in the number of strays is thought mainly to be a result of the accumulation of urban rubbish and ineffective means of control.

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