Thrown to the dogs
Hundreds of dog owners abandoned their pets during the war in the north. Many have not yet found a new home, and are going to be put to sleep
“The worst thing is to be a short-haired black female dog,” says Dr. Deganit Ben-Dov, a veteranarian who in charge of the animal cruelty law in the Ministry of Agriculture. “Why? Because people in Israel don’t like black dogs. The dog’s appearance is very important to Israelis. They prefer a dog that looks like a purebred, they don’t want dogs that are too big, and they don’t want dogs over the age of four. It’s very frustrating.”
Kushit is not the only four-legged victim of the war. Hundreds of dogs were abandoned, suffering hunger and fear, and are now in danger of being put to sleep. The statistics are not in their favor. The Agriculture Ministry says that of the 100,000 dogs abandoned in Israel every year, 90 percent do not find a home. A few are sent to institutions conducting animal experiments. Kushit is hoping to be one of the lucky ones.
All alone
When the war ended dog owners were asked to locate their animals. A third of the dogs waited in vain for their owners. Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon, together with Environment Minister Gidon Ezra and Efrat Duvdevani, Director General of the Office of Galilee Development, have recently joined efforts to find homes for dozens of dogs that were not picked up. A sum of 150,000 shekels has been allocated so that animal rights organizations and veterinarians can send these dogs to private guest houses at government expense.
This is a desperate attempt to extend their lives a bit, since by law an abandoned dog must be quarantined for 30 days to verify that he does not have rabies. A dog brought to the pound can be held for ten more days to allow his owner to come and get him, but at the end of this period, if no one has come for him and no one wants to adopt him, he is put to sleep.
The dogs of northern Israel taken to guest houses are in very bad shape. “They were frightened and exhausted,” says Ron Solomon, owner of the “Kalba-Inn” guest house in Kfar Yehoshua. “Some are still recovering, and every day we see how the stress and the fear are waning. There are dogs here who wandered around a long time outside the house, and they yearn for someone to pet them or play with them.”
Etti Altman, spokeswoman and co-founder of “Let the Animals Live,” says that “many people simply took advantage of the war to get rid of their dogs.” She adds: “They abandoned the dogs, and we’re still waiting for them to come take them back.”
Janet Hansen, who runs the kennel at Kibbutz Lahavot Habashan, knows from experience that the wait is futile. “A day after the war started I got a phone call,” she recalls. “A terrified woman from Kiryat Shmona was on the line, and she told me that she was leaving the city immediately and sending me her dog in a special taxi. She asked me to look after him for now, and she promised me that after it was all over she’d come back and take him. How long has it been since the war ended? I’m still waiting.”
More than 40 dogs stayed in Hanson’s home during the war. “I kept the small ones in the house, and the large ones I took to the kennel. Only when the Katyushas started to fall on the kibbutzim in the Upper Galilee did we move the dogs—with the assistance of Let the Animals Live–to the kennel in Tel Aviv. Many people promised not to give up their dogs and said they’d return after the war, but the fact is that the dogs are still alone, with no family.”
Were there also emotional reunions between dogs and owners?
“Unfortunately, there were hardly any. Most people simply didn’t come to take their dogs back. Now there’s something else that’s worrisome: an increasing number of dogs being brought in in the past few days. Children are having a hard time getting back to their normal routine since the war ended, and parents are deciding to invest their resources in them and neglecting the dog. Not only have there been families who decided to return to the city and haven’t come to take their dogs; there are also more than a few families who decided after the war to give up their dog.”
Dogs dying in the streets
Zvika Lazarovich, dog catcher for Let the Animals Live, can’t forget the 3-year old purebred Rottweiler left in a small pen in the yard of a house in Nahariya.
“It was at the start of the war, and almost the entire city had emptied out,” he recalls. “We got to the family’s house, which they’d fled, leaving the Rottweiler closed inside a tiny pen in the yard. The poor dog was squeezed and pressed into the pen. I don’t know how she survived locked in there for a week. When I took her out of the pen I was shocked by her terrible condition. The dog was totally hairless because there were so many fleas, and the entire pen stank and was full of her excrement. I spoke to her owner, and he told me he was giving her up. He gave me some excuse about having a small daughter and being afraid because the dog is a Rottweiler. I wonder why they weren’t afraid until the war.”
The dog was taken to the guest house in Moshav Bet Nehemia. “Today she’s in much better shape,” says Niv Tzadik, owner of the guest house. “She’s gained a lot of weight, her fur has grown back. She’s recovered from the trauma and is now awaiting an adoptive home.”
“There needs to be a commission of inquiry on the subject of animal neglect during the war,” says Yulia Meiler of Nahariya, a veterinary assistant who has coordinated groups of volunteers who took care of abandoned dogs in the north. “We saw very difficult things—dogs dead in the streets, dogs in closed storage rooms, dogs suffering from malnutrition. I don’t get it. Anyone who can’t take responsibility for animals shouldn't take them. A dog is not a toy that you throw away when you feel like it.”
But there are a few stories with happy endings. “During one of the days of the war soldiers called us and said there was a frightened dog walking around among their tanks,” says Altman. “Our truck went to get it, and from the chip we discovered that it belonged to a family from Rosh Pina. We contacted them and they were so happy to hear that the dog was alive and well. It turned out that the sounds of the explosions and the cannons had really scared it, and it simply ran away. The reunion between dog and family was very moving. Finally, a happy story.”
Reuven Weiss, Lior El-Hai, and Goel Benu helped prepare this report
