Mesa Grandfather Jailed for Protesting Dog Slaughter at FIFA Club World Cup

For Immediate Release:
June 26, 2025

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

Three days after being tackled and arrested at the Morocco vs. Manchester City soccer match during the FIFA Club World Cup in Philadelphia—where he ran onto the field to protest Morocco’s cruel massacre of community dogs as the country prepares to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup—51-year-old grandfather Johnny Mora of Mesa, Arizona, has just been released from jail and is available for interviews. Photos and videos of the protest are available upon request.

Mora, who works as an acquisitions specialist in Avondale, and another protester were tackled and dragged off the field in front of thousands—similar to footage out of Morocco that shows dogs being dragged to their deaths. Mora was reportedly kept in a holding cell where he had to sleep on the cement floor and was given only bread to eat.

“Knowing how much my grandchildren love dogs, I couldn’t stand by and do nothing while dogs are being gunned down and left to die of their injuries, or poisoned, right in front of Moroccan children,” says Mora. “The real crime is what’s being done to these dogs for the sake of a soccer tournament, and I would do this again in a heartbeat.”

PETA points out that while Morocco’s King Mohammed VI gave a royal order to end the country’s decades-long massacre of homeless dogs and cats in 2019—with authorities there signing an agreement to stop the killing—the pledge didn’t hold. Homeless animals are being snatched off the streets, shot, poisoned, burned alive, and left to die in cages without food or water, among other atrocities.

PETA is also calling on FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, to urgently step in and stop the mass slaughter taking place on its behalf and has asked soccer icon and proud dog guardian Cristiano Ronaldo to step up for canines by donating a small portion of his earnings to help fund spay and neuter clinics in Morocco.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.