The dark side of Egypt: a tourist saved dogs from a concentration camp (26 photo)
British woman Claire Steele was raising money for an animal shelter in Egypt. However, instead she found a "death camp". The woman, who once served in the army, faced cruelty towards dogs. They were raped, beaten and shot. Locals did not understand why foreigners wanted to help animals. 
The woman had to pay thousands of pounds to free the four-legged captives. She admitted that the trauma of what she saw in Egypt was more severe than any other experience of serving in the army.
Claire joined a local charity while serving in Egypt. She said the shelter was run by a man named Rami. When she returned to her native Wiltshire, she began helping him raise funds. In 2018, she adopted eight dogs and found them homes in the UK. 
Claire Steele at the shelter she runs with her friend 
In 2019, Rami left the shelter, leaving about 100 dogs without food and doomed to die.
"Yeah, he just left the dogs and disappeared," Steele recalls.
Woman arrives in Egypt to find shelter that looks more like death camp. 
The former shelter for stray dogs where they were left to starve
She said: "There was no food and the dogs were starving to death. They had wounds and no veterinary care. It was horrible."
Claire and her friend Sana wanted to rescue the dogs from the shelter, but the landlord wouldn't let them in. It turned out that Rami had rented the property and owed the landlord money. 
“The owner wouldn’t let anyone in. We threw food over the walls to feed the dogs. Eventually, I paid off all the debts so we could take the animals. It cost £5,000. I managed to raise some of the money and paid the rest myself.” 
Claire and her friend Sana decided to open their own shelter. The friends have managed to find families for more than a hundred animals in the UK, Canada and Austria.
But now, due to logistical difficulties, they are trying to find a safe haven for their charges in Egypt. 
Claire served in Iraq, Kenya, Nepal and Egypt 
The British woman admitted that the cruelty of the Egyptians towards animals greatly traumatized her: "There is a lot of rape, a lot of bestiality. Once I saved a dog that was giving birth under a car. I have seen children grab her puppies and smash them on the ground. I have seen children pick up puppies from the streets and take them to the market to be slaughtered. I have seen people tie dogs to trees and then shoot them. I have a dog named Life who I am looking for a new home for. She was tied up and shot over 30 times with an air rifle. Somehow she survived." 
"I have seen dogs being dragged through the streets and their owners chopping them up with machetes. These people have a completely sick mentality."
The animal rights activist also fears for her own life: "The last time I was there, we were broken into. A van full of armed men arrived. They searched the shelter. We don't know what they were looking for or what they wanted, but they terrorized us for about six hours. It's a really dangerous country. Especially for British and Western women." 
Claire and Sana can't take in all the strays, so they started a dog sterilization program.
Their retreat is just an hour's drive from Giza, home to the famous pyramids that attract thousands of tourists from around the world every year.
Steele said: "We have tourists coming to visit us. And they are really, really surprised. They always tell me they'll never go back to Egypt. They honestly don't understand how I can work here." 
“I get a lot of calls from people who come out of town saying, ‘I found a dog that was run over’, or ‘this dog has been abused’, or ‘this dog is starving’. They’re asking for help. There are no rescue centres here, there’s no RSPCA, and in fact the locals think you’re crazy for helping a dog. We go out and feed stray dogs and people often scold us for that. They say, ‘Why are you feeding the dogs, what about us?’ And they take the food. They steal the food for themselves.” 
"People who come to the resorts and never leave them say that Egypt is beautiful. But the hotel workers literally poison all the dogs in the area, unimaginable things happen." 
Dry food outside a shelter for street dogs
Georgia Tesfaye, 30, decided to rescue dogs from Egypt after hearing horror stories of abuse. In 2024, she founded the Four Paws, One Heart Foundation. 
Georgia claims to have seen dogs hit by cars, poisoned, beaten, thrown out of buildings, hanged, raped, used for dog fighting, and electrocuted. She rescued a Golden Retriever named Hope who had been raped.
"Hope was dumped on the street after being raped. She was diagnosed with a uterine infection and sepsis. All of her organs were failing. The dog was in critical condition for a very long time. We noticed that this was a common occurrence for local animals,” the animal rights activist shared. 
A street dog on the side of the road in rural Egypt
The day after Hope was found, Georgia found another golden retriever, Daisy, in the same place.
“The injuries were too severe, the organs were failing. We had to put her down. It was unbearable. A week later, another case was reported. On the street, in the same place where we found Hope and Daisy, a man raped a cat.” 
A golden retriever named Hope 
This is the condition Hope was found in
There are an estimated 15 million stray dogs in Egypt.
"We want to save every single animal. But we can't afford to care for that many dogs, and there's not enough space for them. It's cruel, and it breaks our hearts every time we have to leave one," Steele added. 
