Jadiya Ouiyzme builds a shelter for abandoned cats on outskirts of Rabat

Tamesna (Morocco), Jul 8 (EFE) - (Camera: Mohamed Siali) Each of the 200 cats has its own story and Jadiya Ouiyzme knows them all. Fed up with seeing the animals in her neighbourhood being poisoned, this talkative and lively Moroccan decided two years ago to set up her own association, got into debt to buy land and founded what is now a cat oasis near Rabat.

Next to a river, where cats "love to hunt", Jadiya's Village des Animaux tries to remedy a problem endemic to Morocco: stray cats (and dogs) that roam the streets and roads unchecked and often end up dying from being run over, disease, mistreatment or poisoning.

FOOTAGE RECORDED ON 6 JULY FROM JADIYA OUIYZME'S ANIMAL SHELTER "VILLAGE DES ANIMAUX" IN TAMESNA, NEAR RABAT, MOROCCO.

SOUNDBITES OF JADIYA OUIYZME IN FRENCH.

TRANSLATION:

1 - "Miracle" is an abandoned cat, her owner abandoned her in the forest because his daughter has allergies and had to spend the night in the forest, in the morning when crossing the road she was hit by a car and suffered head injuries which caused her a coma for a month, which she spent in a vet's surgery. The girls working there thought she was going to die and when she woke up they named her "Miracle".

2 - "I started here (she points to a poster with pictures of dead cats that had been poisoned), because they had poisoned the cats in my urbanisation, it was one of my neighbours but I don't know which one. He poisoned the cats that I had sterilised and vaccinated. However, the local authorities told me that I could not go against him and that I have to have an association to be able to file a complaint".

3 - "We have 42 kittens, but the problem is that there are some that have not been spoilt by their mothers' milk and had weak immunity and died".

4 - "We have now almost 200 cats living here, but at the moment they are in the river, looking for their food, they love the birds, but at night they come here, some sleep in the rooms and some in the tent".

5 - "There is no law in Morocco for animals, and if there is a law, it is not respected. But we have organised protests, and the last one took place in front of the Parliament to ask for the drafting of a law to protect animals".