We can"t let Moroccan street cats starve!

1. In Morocco, Valerie has no more kibble to feed the 500 street cats followed by her association, they will starve to death if no one intervenes.

"Currently, ADAN Essaouira takes care of more than 500 cats on the street. We operate through volunteers, the 'Street Shepherds'. They take care of sterilising the cats, socialising them and monitoring their health, and they make feeding rounds every day thanks to the kibble we provide.

Summer usually gives us a break, but with Covid, it's not looking good...! There are very few tourists, who usually feed the cats a lot, and as the crisis has affected everyone, we find more and more sick cats, abandoned by their owners who did not have the means to look after them. And this lack of means threatens us in turn, the decrease in donations is drastic and we are reaching the limit of our capacity to help!

Our stock of kibble is empty and the Street Shepherds already have to give rice to the cats for lack of anything better. And if we can't find any kibble, we will have to stop supporting them altogether! Specifically, if the cats are starving, they attack the rubbish bins and are then less appreciated by the local population, they get diarrhoea or other opportunistic diseases, and they starve to death. All the work done by the Street Shepherds is then lost."

2. Mino is too young and too ill to survive alone on the street if Valerie can no longer bring him kibble.

"Mino is only 10 months old, but he is already in very poor health: he was abandoned at a very young age and suffers from an advanced form of scabies.

As he is very scared, he hardly lets us come near him. Without kibble, there will be no chance of getting close to him at all or giving him any treatment to hope to cure him.

Moreover, if we don't bring him food, he won't be able to compete with the bigger and more dominant cats who will take over the little food available. Mino will probably starve to death."

3. At the shelter, the lack of kibble is preventing new admissions and threatening the health of the many vulnerable cats.

"Our shelter is dedicated to the most vulnerable cats. We take in those who need to be hospitalised and we have created an infirmary. But with the lack of means and food, we can only rescue cats that have been badly injured, and only in exceptional circumstances. 

All the other sick cats have to be treated in the street, and therefore have less chance of surviving, especially newly abandoned cats who are not used to living outside and are much more likely to fall ill and be victims of accidents... or of course kittens, whose mortality rate is always high.

We are now starting our last 2 bags of kibble, the cats in the shelter will eat their fill until the bags are finished. After that, we'll see... The few donations we receive will go entirely into food, and we won't be able to take in any more cats, even if they're injured! Besides, the weakest of our cats will be the first to fall ill again and unfortunately leave... We have many cats suffering from chronic diseases, we are overwhelmed and at the end of our rope..."

4. Loss of balance, extreme sensitivity... Ptissi is still suffering from the after-effects of an accident and depends exclusively on Valérie for food.

"Pitssi is four years old, he spent a long time on the streets, and he ended up having an accident. We took him to the shelter and treated him, but the accident has had a serious impact on him: he has neurological problems and is ataxic, which is why he has difficulty moving around and has balance problems.

It is clear that he could not survive on the streets, so we keep him in the shelter. We have also noticed that he is distressed by unfamiliar people and unusual situations. He truly depends on us: if he could only rely on himself, he wouldn't be able to eat his fill, and psychologically he wouldn't be able to stand a shortage of kibble."

5.  The drastic drop in donations and the lack of public funding are compromising the association's activities... Valérie can no longer buy kibble.

"The shelter's finances are based on donations, which are practically non-existent because the crisis has affected everyone, even the donors! At the same time, we are increasingly well known, meaning that we have more and more requests for help, which forces us to go into debt at the vet's.

And although our reputation and our seriousness allow us to be strongly involved with the authorities, who come to ask us for our advice and expertise, the authorities cannot provide the necessary funds, and we often find ourselves doing everything alone!

This lack of means forces us to count every penny, and we simply have no more money. Without this harvest, we won't be able to do anything, and we can say goodbye to our hope for a controlled and healthy cat population in Essaouira."

6. Valérie is not asking for money, only kibble to keep the cats from starving.

"We have been involved since 2005, we created the association when we saw the number of animals in need and we haven't stopped since then...! Of course, before us, people were already feeding stray cats, but now they are genuinely concerned about their health!

You can see a clear difference when you walk around the medina. There are almost no more boxes with kittens dying of hunger and disease... And the tourists, when there are some, leave with the vision of a city that loves cats and where cats are happy.

And even though sometimes we just want to give up and say there's no point, then we go on our rounds, and we see all these cats turning up in better shape, and we say to ourselves that our work is useful and we have to keep fighting."

7. If this campaign succeeds, Valérie will not receive any money but 1140 kg of kibbles, delivered from Animal Webaction's logistics platform in Morocco.

Animal Webaction has a logistics platform in Morocco, which enables us to intervene quickly and deliver kibbles.

8. Appeals on Facebook, street sales at the market, soliciting NGOs... Valerie is multiplying her actions to obtain help, but the needs are too great... This campaign must succeed!

"We received help from a big NGO last year during the strict confinement and we do online fundraising for the horses in the shelter, but we can't do so for our cats. Also, most NGOs only help with specific programmes like sterilisation, not food.

We therefore have a stall at the organic market to try to finance kibble, and we report on Facebook about all our actions: at the shelter, in the streets and for sterilisation.

Our goal is to decrease and stabilize the local cat population and to take care of the cats in need... We are not that far from the goal, but at this point we are limited by the lack of funds and I am afraid that we will not have the strength to keep going..."

9. Campaigns launched on Animal Webaction often fail.

When a campaign fails, Animal Webaction cannot deliver the collected products, the beneficiary receives nothing and the buyers get a refund..

10. In Morocco, donors are scarce, and there are no foundations or subsidies . It is very difficult to find funding for kibbles, many cats remain starving in the street!

If you know of a foundation or NGO that could help Valerie, please invite them to contact us so that we can put them in touch.

If you represent a Foundation or an NGO for animal protection, please help the cats supported by the association, contact us and we will put you in touch!

If you would like to come to Valérie's shelter, or if you would like to send her directly some kibbles or a cheque, please contact her via the association's Facebook page (note: you are entirely responsible for direct help).

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