Last week, the religious leader of Jordan issued a fatwa – an instruction to kill every street dog in the country. Thousands of dogs have been killed by gunmen with automatic weapons and more are dying each day.
In response to enormous pressure from our supporters, the government of Jordan has now ended the programme saying the religious leaders instruction had been misinterpreted. However, it seems that many Muslims have not heeded the attempted fatwa recall. Killing is continuing throughout the country, although at a slower rate.
Jordan’s most senior religious figure, Grand Mufti, Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaileh, issued the fatwa – a religious instruction to Muslims – to kill the dogs. He quoted Prophet Mohammed to justify the slaughter.
David Barritt, NFA’s campaign director thanked the more than 7000 people who have so far signed a petition, calling for the killing to stop. The petition went directly to the king’s office. “I thank our supporters for writing to the king and I thank the government of Jordan that the fatwa has been called off.”
He added: “however, it seems hard to put the genie back in the bottle, followers of the Grand Mufti are listening to his words and the killing is continuing. We need to keep up the pressure to have this stopped before there are no dogs left alive in Jordan.
Brian Davies, founder of Network for Animals has received emails pointing out that Islam stresses kindness to animals. “I urge all our supporters to share the fact that Prophet Mohammad repeatedly forbade cruelty to animals,” said Davies.
Network for Animals will continue to press government on this issue until the slaughter stops.
