Forgotten victims: the fate of stray animals in Syria

In Syria, thousands of animals are hit, shot at or abandoned by their owners every day. But due to the lack of specialised organisations, exact figures do not exist. On 25 April 2025, animal rights activists called for an end to violence against cats and dogs in a demonstration in capital Damascus. They demanded that animals should be protected from indiscriminate killing and poisoning, and promoted a culture of compassion and animal welfare. The activists urged the introduction of laws to protect animals amid the increasing number of stray animals and the escalating violence against them due to war, psychological pressure and economic hardship.

Large numbers of stray animals live across Syria, especially in abandoned and war-ravaged areas. With the return of residents after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024, the crisis of mistreatment of cats and dogs is becoming increasingly evident, in the absence of laws punishing perpetrators, social awareness programmes on animal rights, and government projects for relocation, vaccination and sterilisation of stray animals. But there are also organisations trying to tackle problems and raise awareness about them, such as ‘Bayt Al-Rahma’.

The reality of street animals

In Aleppo's Al-Zahraa neighbourhood, which was abandoned during the war, large numbers of cats and dogs populate the streets. Residents are demanding solutions from the authorities to limit the spread of street animals. They also claim that the roaming dogs are ferocious and aggressive. However, Rama Murae believes that the dogs do not pose any danger to residents, but that they are hungry and need care. Images supporting this, she showed on Instagram in a video of a visit to Al-Zahraa.

Rama: “Unfortunately, people do not accept cats and dogs in residential areas.” She explains that since the return of citizens, violence against stray animals has increased in these areas, with “the only ‘solution’ being poisoning or shooting animals.” Rama says most of the reports her organisation receives are about cats: “They are weaker than stray dogs and more familiar with people, making them more vulnerable.”.

“To our regret, many of these acts are committed by children,” Rama says. “This is because of the poor treatment of children by their parents, which leads to psychological instability.” War, political repression and economic problems exacerbate the situation. “These create feelings of revenge, which people take out on weaker beings.” According to Rama, the number of reported cases of disease in cats and dogs is limited compared to mistreatment. She also stresses that stray animals attacking people are “extremely rare”.

House of mercy

‘Bayt Al-Rahma’, the organisation's name, is an Arabic term meaning ‘House of Mercy’, an expression with deep cultural significance in Syrian society, both in Arab and Islamic contexts. Mercy is encouraged by Islam, which is followed by most Syrians, and applies to pets as well. With emotion, Rama says: “Our mission is to treat animals with gentleness and protect them like a mother protects her children.”

In 2019, when Rama was 17 years old, she rescued a cat that she said had been deliberately hit by a car. This cat lives in the organisation's shelter to this day. Initially, her goal was to rescue cats and pets and release them after recovery. But Rama noticed that the released animals were being mistreated again. “Then I decided to sell my gold jewellery and gifts given to me by my family to take over a shelter in 2020,” she says. For a long time, she alone bore the costs of the shelter and the care of the animals until the work could be expanded.

According to Rama, Bayt Al-Rahma has rescued and cared for 850 animals since its inception. All animals are supervised by specialised vets who have joined the association. Volunteers collect the injured animals following reports.

How can the problem be solved?

In Syria, there is no single government agency responsible for all animal issues. However, responsibility for street dogs and cats lies with the Ministry of Local Government and Environment, which monitors their presence in cities and takes safety measures. This is done locally through municipalities and in coordination with other agencies and teams. Due to limited resources and equipment, cooperation with other ministries, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, is also sometimes undertaken. The Ministry of Interior may be involved in legal issues surrounding animal abuse, and the Ministries of Education, Culture and Media in awareness campaigns. In practice, however, things are rarely so smooth and integrated.

The Syrian government has no plans yet to protect stray animals; everything is limited to using poison to reduce their numbers. These are campaigns carried out under the supervision of the municipality, which is responsible for the area where the spread of stray animals has been reported. This involves municipal workers placing poisoned food in front of the street dogs and cats, leading to the death of large numbers of animals after consuming the food, as a method to reduce their spread in the area.

“Organisations want to start sterilisation, vaccination and rehoming campaigns, but this is costly and requires government help,” Rama says. She stresses that all treatment, feeding and shelter costs “rest on the shoulders of associations and volunteers, without any government support,” which is a major reason why many initiatives do not get off the ground.

“Another factor is the lack of a culture of animal welfare in society,” Rama said. In a war-torn country like Syria, this is a major challenge. So far, there are no laws that protect animals or punish mistreatment, nor government projects that follow examples from neighbouring countries for rehoming stray animals. Nor are there broad awareness programmes.

Going forward, Rama and her colleagues want to coordinate their efforts with civil protection, a body under the Syrian Ministry of Local Government and Environment responsible for rescue operations and emergency interventions. They also intend to advocate for a law criminalising animal cruelty in talks with Aleppo's governor. She indicated that her association plans to expand the shelter by buying a farm that can house larger numbers of stray animals, instead of the current, relatively small shelter.

Attention

Rama Murae: “Social media did help draw attention to animal rights by sharing stories, photos and videos and interacting with the public.” She has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram and regularly publishes videos of cats and dogs that are injured or sick. In doing so, she calls on people to help and donate for their treatment. A video of a white cat with calicivirus, for example, gained many views.

In most cases, the action succeeds and the treatment of the sick animal is funded. Rama notes that the issue of stray animals in Syria has received more media attention after the fall of the Assad regime. For a long time, the issue fell under state censorship; now the media has adopted a somewhat “more humanitarian character”.

Still, Rama is not very optimistic about the future: “Media coverage and the efforts of a few activists are not enough as long as government and civil society support is lacking.” She believes there should be an integrated government plan to tackle the problem structurally. She also points to “mistaken beliefs” within society that cats and dogs would be “harmful creatures”.

Addressing this requires sweeping plans, and time, to impart a different way of thinking to the new generation. That is why Rama calls on people to instil a culture in their children from an early age. One in which they are not afraid of cats and dogs, that encourages them to accept animals and treat them with gentleness and respect.

This article previously appeared in the Journal of Veterinary Medicine.