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July 1998 Progress for Animal Rights in Israel By Nina Nadelson

There has been enormous progress in attitudes toward and treatment of animals in Israel over the 14 years since Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI) was founded. Although there is still a long way to go, there is much good news: an Animal Protection Law was passed that provides fines and a jail term of up to three years for acts of cruelty; the Tel Aviv-based SPCA in Israel has moved from tiny, dark, run-down quarters to a new, modern facility in a more central location that provides all services, including spaying and neutering for companion animals at low cost; a new shelter is being constructed in the Galilee, the northern part of the country; strychnine poisoning of animals at municipal pounds has been banned and the government has agreed to distribute the oral rabies vaccine in streets and fields, which will eventually lead to the complete elimination of the poisonings; and the Education Ministry agrees that humane education belongs in the regular school curriculum and is providing credit (salary increases) to teachers who attend CHAI's Humane Education conferences. CHAI is proud to have played an important role in these and other new measures.

This past March, a significant obstacle to shelters' ability to fulfill their mission was overcome when the first animal ambulance (donated by CHAI to an animal shelter) was allowed to enter the country--after a 10-year battle--on the same duty-free basis as ambulances for people. We are currently raising funds to purchase and ship a mobile spay/neuter clinic to provide these essential services around the country at low cost.

Last month, yet another obstacle was overcome when the Health Ministry and the Veterinary Service of the Agriculture Ministry gave CHAI permission to provide training to shelter and municipal pound workers in euthanasia, first aid, and animal care, and to elevate standards at these facilities. Until now, because only veterinarians were allowed to euthanize animals, sick or injured animals brought to animal care facilities or found on the street suffered for unnecessarily long periods or endured a lingering, painful death. The Veterinary Services has also announced its intention to develop regulations governing the operation of shelters and municipal pounds, and, at their request, CHAI has provided them with model regulations.

Stopping Ignorance
Animal problems anywhere in the world have the same root cause-- ignorance--and the same solution: education. Israel is populated by immigrants from many different lands, including Western Europe, Morocco, Yemen, Russia, and North America. These immigrants have brought with them the prevailing attitudes and customs from their native lands, which often do not include a tradition of animal protection. CHAI began its educational efforts many years ago by co-sponsoring, with the Ministry of Education, the first country-wide Humane Education Contest. This was followed by testing humane education materials in Tel Aviv area schools. In 1994, the Ministry and CHAI co-sponsored a conference for teachers and school psychology counselors on the link between violence toward people and toward animals, called "Preventing Violence in Society Through Education." This conference received a great deal of media coverage. As a result of that effort, the Ministry offered to introduce humane education materials prepared by CHAI into the schools.

This month, after many years of fundraising, CHAI will hold the groundbreaking ceremony for the Isaac Bashevis Singer Humane Education Center, to be constructed on the grounds of the SPCA in Israel. The Center will not only offer a resource library of books and videos about animals and animal issues, but will also host evening lectures for adults and daytime programs for children, including our "Living Together" program that brings Jewish and Arab children together to learn about and help animals. The Center is named after CHAI's former Advisory Board member, who often wrote about man's inhumanity to animals. We have dubbed a number of videos into Hebrew and Arabic and, thanks to a recent bequest, we are now working on producing several new videos for television and for schools on major issues (animal overpopulation, vivisection, factory farming, and vegetarianism).

Alternatives
As in other countries, hospitals and research institutions in Israel, such as the Weizmann Institute, conduct experiments on animals. Some of these experiments are funded by U.S. taxpayers. Others are funded by grants from private U.S. organizations and individuals. Since Israel has no Freedom of Information Act, it is difficult to obtain information about specific experimental protocols in order to propose alternatives. In 1990, however, CHAI hosted an international medical conference, "Future Medical Research Without the Use of Animals," which resulted in the Israeli Army's switching from operations on live dogs to alternative methods to train paramedics.

A recent $50,000 grant from one of our members enabled us to initiate an Alternatives Fund to promote alternatives to animals in laboratories in Israel. This will enable us to sponsor a second conference on alternatives to animals in laboratories and purchase alternatives for education. Recently, the head of the Israeli Army Medical Corps agreed to switch to alternatives in emergency medicine classes for physicians, provided we assist with supplying them.

There is still tremendous animal suffering in Israel--starving, stray cats and dogs, few animal shelters, factory farming and animal experimentation. Dogs are still being poisoned with strychnine by some municipal workers, and the Veterinary Services continues to drag its feet in bringing about humane reform in this and other areas. But there are now many vocal animal protection groups in Israel. More people than ever before care about animals and are willing to help them. A strong foundation has been laid on which to build many more positive changes.

Nita Nadelson works for CHAI. For further information on the issues or on how to help, contact CHAI in the U.S. at P.O. Box 3341, Alexandria, VA 22302, Tel.: 703-658-9650/fax 703-941-6132/e-mail: 74754.654@compuserve.com. In Israel, CHAI can be reached at (08) 921- 4349/(08) 923-4810 (fax). CHAI's new Hebrew language web site will be up this month at: www.CHAI.org.il. and the English language site at http://host.envirolink.org/chai

Some Additional Information

What you can do to help!

Donate veterinary medical supplies or hand carry supplies to Israel so the shelters can avoid high customs duties.

If you see animal abuse or neglect while in Israel, write to the Mayor of the city in which you saw the problem (address the letter "Mayor, Name of City, Israel"), to the Minister of Tourism (c/o Ministry of Tourism, Jerusalem, Israel), and notify CHAI.

Sponsor an ad for CHAI in the U.S. or in Israel.

Contribute to CHAI's Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinic, Alternatives Fund, Humane Education work, or to its efforts to provide direct support to animal shelters.If you are a member of a Jewish organization, ask them to write about the animal issues in Israel in their newsletter and/or to raise these issues with their contacts in Israel.

Contributions to CHAI--a 501 (c)(3) organization--are tax-deductible. --N.N.

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