With a doctor's pen going east.
It's spreading. Egypt ' s stray dogs are one of the most significant health, environmental and economic challenges facing the country in recent years, and their numbers are officially estimated at 12 to 14 million according to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture, while some informal estimates indicate that the number may range from 15 to 40 million dogs, with an annual increase of about 20 to 25%.
This rapid spread is due to several factors, notably the accumulation of garbage in informal areas, unregulated disposal of food residues, as well as the high reproduction capacity of dogs; females can deliver from 10 to 12 doses twice or three times annually.
And she got worse. The phenomenon is marked after the events of 2011, with the expansion of informal areas and weak control over the waste management system, and the main deployment points are concentrated in major Cairo, particularly the people ' s neighbourhoods and desert peripheral areas such as the fifth and Sheikh Zayed, as well as in the provinces of Giza, Qalibiya, Alexandria, Lakes, Dahlia and the governorates of the field, where food sources from the accumulation of land and unregulated markets are available.
This phenomenon causes serious human damage: the Ministry of Health recorded about 1.4 million poor cases during 2025, compared with 1.2 million in 2024. Some 90% of the cases of pneumonia, a fatal disease, are attributed to stray dogs, and the cost of treating one case is approximately Pound1250, including vaccines and serum, raising direct economic losses to about Pound1.7 billion during the year 2025.
As you can. The State has additional burdens of providing free vaccines and vaccines to citizens, at an estimated cost of approximately Pound1.2 billion annually; not only are the costs of treatment, but also spill over into indirect losses, including low productivity as a result of absenteeism, and tourism activity is affected by visitors ' fears, as well as the psychological effects on children and those affected, as well as the risks of other diseases such as Liperos.
About 90% of the pricing cases, a fatal disease, are attributed to stray dogs, and the cost of treating one case is approximately Pound1250.
Multiple causes Inability to control the phenomenon, including limited sterilization programmes; only 8311 dogs were sterilized during 2025 in exchange for the vaccination of some 12,000 dogs; other factors contribute to aggravation of the crisis, such as lack of funding, lack of trained veterinary cadres, lack of a precise database, and historical dependence on mass executions that have proved ineffective in the long term.
Economically, the crisis represents an increasing burden on the State ' s general budget, and besides the cost of treatment estimated at approximately Pound1.7 billion annually, the State has additional expenditures for immunization and sterilization programmes, shelters and awareness campaigns, raising total direct and indirect losses to several billion pounds annually.
No idea. Exportation of stray dogs has been introduced as a partial solution in some proposals, provided that animals are subject to full immunization and sterilization and international certified health certificates. The United States and some European States were among the most prominent importers of dogs for adoption, but the fears associated with price disease have led many of these States to impose restrictions or bans on the import of dogs coming from Egypt, and proposals for export to some Asian States have been made, and a wide morally feasible environment.
In contrast, resorting to the total elimination of poison or lead stray dogs may lead to serious environmental consequences: the sudden disappearance of dogs may cause an increase in the numbers of mice, snakes and stray cats, exacerbating the spread of disease and causing additional environmental and agricultural damage; environmental experts stress that stray dogs are part of the urban environmental system and that their sudden removal may create more complex problems than solved.
And then, The most sustainable solution is to implement a comprehensive strategy within an initiative «Egypt is free of pricing 2030»It is based on the establishment of 12 modern shelters in key governorates, the expansion of sterilization and immunization programmes, the strengthening of community awareness campaigns on waste management and responsible animal management, and the success of this strategy requires close cooperation between government agencies, civil society organizations and environmental experts, balancing public health protection and maintaining environmental balance and animal attachment.
Doctor in the East, President and Founder of the Egyptian-African Workers ' Society
International Investment and Development Expert
