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Since 2011, Cairo's elite Gezira Sporting Club has seemed a world away from the turmoil unravelling in other parts of Egypt. Its elite acres of golfing greens and tennis courts are an oasis at the heart of one of the planet's most crowded cities, scarcely touched by the countrywide protests outside its gates.
Until this week, that is. Placard-bearing protesters have gathered outside the club's walls this week to accuse Gezira of a massacre of cats.
As one blogger has it, hundreds of stray cats were "beaten, choked in sacks, bludgeoned to death, poisoned, dropped in garbage bins, you name it".
Such a claim – directed at what must be the poshest place in Egypt – has scandalised Cairo's high society and become a cause célèbre within both mainstream and social media. Animal rights blogs are awash with a series of shocking photos of dead cats that allegedly met their fate at Gezira.
Dozens of demonstrators have gathered outside Gezira's rarified grounds. A Facebook group, Stop Gezira Club Massacres, has attracted thousands of members, while a similarly worded slogan is popular on Twitter.
Now the authorities are involved, the alleged cat-catcher has been arrested and a syndicate of Egyptian animal welfare groups has filed an official complaint against both club and catcher. The club denies the charges – but campaigners say they are repeat offenders.
"If he's killing a couple of hundred cats every time he visits, and he's doing that several times a year since at least 2007, then we're talking about thousands of dead cats – and some dogs too," said Mona Khalil, a spokeswoman for the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals.
Gezira denied these charges. "We never ordered a massacre of cats," said Amr Waguih, a Gezira board member tasked with investigating the matter. Waguih admitted the club pays a registered professional to round up stray cats on its grounds every few months and deposit them – alive – in the streets outside.
The cats are removed for hygiene reasons after the cats apparently overwhelmed Gezira's kitchens and "attacked" young children, but certainly not killed.
"Some of the horses here in this club are worth €100,000. We can't poison those horses. And forget about horses – what if a child picks up that poison?" Waguih said.
As for the pictures circulating of poisoned cats, Waguih maintained they weren not taken at the club. Or if they were, then in "a previous era" and most likely killed by rogue club members acting without the board's permission. "If there are 100 cat lovers in this club," said Waguih, "there are thousands who aren't".
Khalil was not convinced. She argued the club has refused humane ways of dealing with the problem, such as the "trap-neuter-return" method that sees cats castrated, vaccinated and then set free.
Khalil added that Gezira's policy is indicative of a wider animal welfare crisis in Egypt: "This happens at other clubs and it's what the government does every day. So we want to show the public that this is a much bigger issue."
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