Animal abuse on the streets of Tel Aviv

"We haven't fulfilled our mission, I admit," Dr. Zvi Galin, the Tel Aviv municipal veterinarian tells Haaretz, referring to the promise he gave the newspaper about two years ago to eradicate within months the bleak sight of injured, exhausted horses pulling heavy loads through the city with evident signs of harsh abuse on their bodies.

And indeed, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel (ISPCA) officials stress that despite the promises, the extent of the phenomenon has not diminished. "We estimate that in Tel Aviv and Jaffa there are still hundreds of horses and donkeys that are suffering from malnourishment and injuries. They are being kept in harsh conditions and are suffering from extensive injuries," says Eyal Gattegno, who is responsible for the treatment of horses at the ISPCA in Tel Aviv.

As evidence, he points to the association's barnyard in south Tel Aviv, which is full of horses and donkeys who are being rehabilitated after having suffered from severe neglect and abuse. "The horses who come here have been required to haul loads weighing up to a ton and a half and have also been abused while doing that. For hours these horses pull unsuitable carts, full of scrap iron and junk," he says.

However, Galin claims that the municipality is making efforts to reduce such mistreatment and has taken a sterner stance regarding the misuse of horses and donkeys. Yet he too admits that it is very difficult to enforce the law and to confiscate animals from an abusive carter. He says that no matter how hard the people in his department work, it is extremely difficult to fight against the owners of the horses and donkeys.

The difficulty is mainly legal. The horses in the city pass from hand to hand. In order to confiscate an animal, it is necessary to prove that its legal owner is the one who has harmed it and not some other drayman. Moreover, in order to convict the abuser in court, there is a needed to prove that he is the legal owner of the horse.

Galin relates that when the municipality began taking action against the carters, they raised a huge outcry: "They demonstrated outside the ISPCA and then they came to our shelter in the north of the city and claimed that we were harming their livelihood," he says.

Horses have been confiscated

Nevertheless, as was promised about two years ago by the municipality, the veterinary department has completed a precise mapping of the various places in the city where animals are kept. According to Galin, despite the legal difficulties, in cases in which there is obvious abuse, the animals are confiscated immediately. "During the past year we have confiscated 63 horses, donkeys and mules from inhabitants in Tel Aviv, under the law for the prevention of cruelty to animals." Galin emphasizes that keeping a horse or a donkey in the city requires a special permit from the municipality. The conditions for the permit include veterinary inspection and the keeping of a clean stable that suits the needs of the animal. However, the municipality has never granted such a permit, so in fact all the horses and donkeys are kept in the city illegally.

How is the municipality dealing with this? "We impose a lot of fines. This year we imposed more than 600 fines on owners of horses and donkeys. There are in fact far fewer animals but there are many who have been fined up to 10 times for use without a permit and are continuing to keep the animal."

But Gattegno notes: "The municipal inspectors hand out notices of fines to the owners of horses and donkeys and they show this to us as evidence that there is enforcement. But those people don't pay the fines at all."

According to Gattegno: "All of the steps that the municipality is taking are a drop in the bucket. The authorities are not doing enough. The police hardly get involved in enforcement, the mayor himself has not made the matter a top priority of his and he says that he has a thousand other laws to enforce." Agriculture Ministry officials also claim that they have increased attempts to enforce the law in order to decrease animal abuse but, according them, as a result of the legal difficulties during the past year and a half the ministry has filed only two complaints against abusive horse-owners.

Ending the cycle of torture

When, finally, the legal difficulty is overcome and the animals that suffer from abuse are confiscated, their fate improves greatly. Most of them go through a two-month rehabilitation process that includes intensive medical care. Sometimes, horses and donkeys arrive in such bad condition that they must be put to sleep. "The cost of rehabilitating a horse can mount to NIS 5,000. This is a very large sum for the owners of those horses, and when they come to ask for their horse back after the rehabilitation we demand they pay the expenses. They say that they will come back, but so far no one ever has. They will find a new and much cheaper horse," says a source at the Agriculture Ministry.

The donkeys confiscated by the Agriculture Ministry are transfered after a process of rehabilitation at the ministry's facility to agricultural organizations that operate fishponds, where they live in a herd in an open expanse. Horses confiscated by the Ministry are given for adoption to families, after a scrupulous process of filtering that includes an interview and a site visit to form an impression of the family's ability to provide proper conditions for the horse.

"As far as we are concerned, this horse will not re-enter the cycle of torture. If there is any problem with it when it is with the family, it comes back to us and we will find it a different family. During the past year we found adoptive families for 30 horses," says Dr. Zvia Mildenberg, who is in charge of the care of horses at the ministry's veterinary services.

Now Dora is in good hands

In ISPCA's Tel Aviv barnyard, Dora the she-ass is chomping grass. Now she is in good hands. Nearly two months ago she was run over at the Mesubbim junction. Gattegno heard about a she-ass that was running on the highway among the cars, arrived quickly, got control of her and called in an evacuation vehicle.

"She was dehydrated, with injuries on her back and her legs. Apparently she had been bound tightly to a cart. She received a good few doses of infusions and then she began to recover. We released her in the yard two weeks later she gave birth to Beautiful Mimi," he relates.

On the other side of the barnyard stands Freddy the horse, who was found on a farm in the south of country in very bad shape, suffering from malnutrition.

"They had simply starved him there. They didn't give him anything to eat," says Gattegno. "He and other horses that were in the filthy stable had to eat their own feces. Before we came, four horses had already died there. Eight others were transfered to the Agriculture Ministry facility for lengthy rehabilitation. All of them have been given for adoption to families that will give them love," he says.