Pets in Syria

The Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, its Directorate of Animal Health, governorate animal-health departments, Veterinary Quarantine and local Health Affairs authorities each cover parts of animal control and veterinary administration. Law 29/2006, Implementing Regulation 301/T/2006 and Resolution 54/T/2008 provide a national framework for animal disease control and licensing the trade, sale, acquisition and breeding of domesticated animals, but companion-animal requirements are not transparently implemented in the same way throughout Syria. Where a local service exists, a pet-acquisition licence, called ترخيص اقتناء حيوان أليف, may require a written application, the owner's identity document and a health booklet, دفتر صحي, showing required vaccinations. A Latakia government-services portal lists this process, but publishes no reliable fee or processing time. Damascus recorded a 2022 example for dog registration through the Health Affairs Directorate with an identity document, vaccination booklet, an annual fee of 15,000 SYP and a 5,000 SYP card fee; the current status of those amounts is unverified. Unregistered or unlicensed dogs may be detained under local practice, with possible holding costs. Keep the health booklet, vaccination evidence, licence or registration card and veterinary treatment records together. Veterinary access depends strongly on location, security, medicine supply and ability to pay. Private clinics provide paid care, while organisations such as Ernesto Free Veterinary Clinic and other NGO clinics may provide free or subsidised treatment, neutering or emergency surgery when donations and staff are available. Current NGO veterinary services have been documented in Damascus, Aleppo and Idlib, but no nationwide provider directory or fee schedule is verified. Rabies prevention requires particular care. WHO reported that 41 rabies centres treated 10,637 dog-bite patients in Syria in 2022 and reported three subsequent human deaths across 2022 and 2023. Syria's Ministry of Health announced in 2026 that human rabies vaccine and serum are free at approved centres after medical assessment. Human treatment after a bite belongs to the health system; animal vaccination and control of stray dogs remain veterinary and municipal concerns. Importing or exporting a pet involves an official veterinary health certificate, destination-country requirements and possible inspection or quarantine. Veterinary Quarantine regulates animal import, export and transit, but no current Syria-wide public checklist, fee schedule or processing time is verified. Outbound travel is mainly determined by the destination country and commonly requires identification, rabies vaccination and a recent health certificate; Syria has no verified universal pet-passport or compulsory-microchip system. If an owner can no longer keep an animal, no verified state-wide surrender pathway or public shelter network is available. Practical alternatives include licensed rescue organisations, volunteer foster care, adoption and NGO shelters. STAR and Ernesto document rescue, treatment, sheltering, sterilisation and adoption work in Syria. Trap-neuter-vaccinate-return, or TNVR, is also used for some stray-dog programmes: dogs are treated, sterilised, vaccinated and released. A 2025 Damascus intervention treated 250 dogs, sterilised 86 and vaccinated them against rabies; an Idlib campaign treated 110 and sterilised 24. These are campaign results, not national prevalence figures. Shelters may prioritise animals meeting their admission criteria rather than accepting every healthy dog.