Leeds campaigner delivers hard-hitting speech in Parliament as FIFA opens door to ‘ground-breaking’ humane dog programme
A Leeds woman leading one of the world’s fastest-growing animal welfare movements has delivered a blistering address in Parliament, and revealed a major breakthrough in talks with FIFA.
Debbie Wilson, who fronts the International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC), travelled from her home in Leeds to Westminster on Tuesday to give a keynote speech at the influential APDAWG (All-Party Dog Advisory Welfare Group) meeting.
In a packed committee room, Debbie unveiled significant progress in the coalition’s negotiations with football’s global governing body, telling MPs and peers: “The IAWPC and FIFA are in the very early stages of discussing a FIFA-sponsored Humane Education and CNVR programme across the six 2030 tournament stadium sites.
"Even if nothing has been confirmed yet, the IAWPC welcome FIFA’s positive expression of interest in potentially supporting this programme. The IAWPC are keen to work with FIFA on what could be a ground-breaking project.”
The announcement marks the strongest indication yet that FIFA may formally back humane solutions to the mass killing of dogs in Morocco ahead of the 2030 World Cup, a crisis the IAWPC has fought to expose on the world stage.
It’s also a sign that the Moroccan Government’s continuing violence and inhumanity, is causing it to become more isolated from modern society, as the world distances itself from such barbarism in the name of sport.
Debbie also used her speech to give Parliament a sharp overview of the IAWPC’s explosive rise.
Formed just over a year ago, the coalition led by veteran animal rights campaigner Les Ward MBE, now spans more than 80 animal welfare organisations across the world, from the RSPCA and Dogs Trust to PETA.
Their mission is clear, to stop the widespread killing of free-roaming dogs and cats in Morocco, where animals are routinely shot, poisoned or rounded up in the run-up to major international events such as AFCON and now the 2030 World Cup.
Debbie told MPs that the coalition has organised worldwide protests, presented evidence to FIFA, and built international pressure for a humane, science-based alternative: CNVR, Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return.
In one of the most powerful moments of the evening, Debbie read a deeply moving statement from Franco-Moroccan actress and PETA ambassador Ouidad Elma, who has spent two years documenting the killings on the ground.
Her words brought the room to a standstill and was followed by rapturous applause.
Ouidad wrote: “In Morocco, dogs and cats are being exterminated in the streets. They are shot with live bullets. They are poisoned. This is systematic. It is deliberate. And it contradicts every value that a nation should defend.”
She described holding dying animals in her arms, losing five of her own cats, and watching sterilised, vaccinated, tagged community dogs, supposedly protected, killed without hesitation.
“The reality is blood on the pavement.”
Ouidad condemned Morocco’s failure to implement the CNVR commitments promised in its 2019 Convention, noting that not a single functioning CNVR centre exists.
She warned that the mass killings are not only cruel but dangerously counterproductive: “Killing dogs does not control rabies. It destabilises groups and accelerates the spread of the virus.”
Ouidad said the trauma eventually drove her to leave her homeland.
Debbie’s speech underscored that the IAWPC’s campaign is no longer fringe activism, it is now a global movement with political influence, scientific backing, and growing engagement from FIFA.