Cairo opens its first stray dog shelter in El Tebbin, with room for 700 dogs

Cairo has opened what it describes as its first integrated shelter for stray dogs, in El Tebbin in the south of the governorate, CairoScene reported on Monday. Cairo Governor Ibrahim Saber opened it with the Minister of Local Development and Environment, Manal Awad, and the Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Alaa Farouk, with officials from the General Authority for Veterinary Services and Cairo's veterinary services.

The shelter covers 5,000 square metres east of the Autostrad. In its first phase it can hold about 700 dogs in 112 kennels, each taking up to three dogs. It has operating rooms, a pharmacy, and separate areas for feeding, isolation and recovery, all under veterinary supervision.

The plan is to catch, treat and release. Dogs will first be collected from El Tebbin and 15 May City. At the shelter they get veterinary care, vaccinations including the rabies jab, and are neutered or spayed. Males recover for 24 to 48 hours and females for about five days, after which the dogs are released under approved environmental guidelines. The governorate says the centre is a model meant to be repeated at similar sites elsewhere in Cairo, and it will work with civil society groups and animal welfare charities.

The project has been in the works for months: the governorate set aside the land east of the Autostrad in El Tebbin for it, and the governor had said earlier that construction was nearly finished. It opens a few days after a free nationwide rabies vaccination campaign for stray dogs, which ran until 7 November.

For residents, the first change is in El Tebbin and 15 May City, where collection starts. Families who want a dog can adopt from the shelter once a dog has been confirmed free of disease and fully vaccinated. The report does not say how to apply to adopt, whether there is a fee, or how residents can report a dog for collection, and no date has been given for the next centres.