Nature authority seeks permission to shoot stray dogs
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority asks Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan for approval to shoot stray dogs that enter parks and nature reserves.
By Zafrir Rinat Tags: Israel newsOn instructions from Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan, the authorities have long refrained from shooting stray dogs that found their way into parks and nature reserves. But last month, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority asked the minister to approve new, interim regulations allowing strays to be shot under certain circumstances.
The ministry said Erdan has yet to either approve or deny the request.
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Gilad Erdan |
| Photo by: Nir Kafri |
For years, INPA inspectors habitually shot strays, both to prevent them from hunting wildlife and out of concern that they might have rabies. But Erdan ordered this practice stopped. He told the INPA to set new rules for determining when shooting is necessary, explore alternative methods for containing the stray population and take steps to ensure that no pets that have run away from home end up being shot.
But since the ban on shooting took effect, there have been several incidents of stray dog packs attacking endangered wildlife, including one attack on a herd of rare fallow deer in the Jerusalem hills. Following that attack, the INPA halted its program to reintroduce the species to the wild - one of its flagship programs for returning captive species to nature.
This year has also seen a substantial rise in the incidence of rabies.
The proposed new regulations would allow authorized INPA inspectors to shoot stray dogs in the interest of containing rabies in national parks, nature reserves and any other open area where wildlife species are considered at risk. But strays would not be shot unless their presence poses an immediate, discernible risk to wildlife, and never within a kilometer of human habitation.
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Interesting it is usually the left-wing liberals that when getting tired of a dog, take it out into the country, and let it go. And then they cry when they hear stories like this. Im originally a farm guy from Tennessee and we got tired of messing with all the middle classes strays they didnt want anymore. You don't want them to be shot...stop taking them into nature to get rid of them...simple as that. Until this happens...the gun is the best answer.
I all else fails and their nothing that you can do then shoot.
Why not tranquilize these feral dogs and see if there are other locations where they can roam safely or can't these animals be retrained to serve some other purpose that BENEFITS both humans and dogs?
This is a terrible proposal. In the UK strays are taken in by the RSPCA., but this action if carried out would be inline with the general attitude towards animals in Israel. A friend of mine came here some years ago. He has traveled the world, and said he had never seen so many road kills in any other country as he had seen in Israel. The whole Israeli attitude towards animals come from the barbaric way in which they are slaughtered for human consumption "the Kosher way". It may be "Kosher" but it's barbaric. If we continue down this path, one day a proposal will be tabled to shot the homeless too.
Murdering dogs is immoral
and there aren't any other viable solutions, then I support this, but other solutions should be checked.
Actually, the use of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition is sufficient to take care of this problem without attracting attention to the noise. It is not necessary to use military types of ammo to be effective at reducing the feral dog population. Rimfire amunition will not penetrate a cinder-block wall--so persons inside are safe from stray shots. That means that the kilometer minimum distance can probably be reduced by half. Such activities can be done over bait at night with night vision devices so that entire packs can be culled at a single event. As a side note, generally, it takes only six weeks for a dog fully acclimated to existance with a human family to revert to a feral animal that cannot be approached at all. The single most fearful event that accompanies an increase in the number of feral packs is the incidence of attacks on small children. The second most fearful incidence is the increase of attacks on pets with a subsequent increase in incidences of rabies. Kill them all. The ocassional loss of a stray pet is not worth the cost to humans and domestic animals.
someone pays for tranquillizer guns and training + takes care of the captured dogs (not at the taxpayer's expense). That would be the optimal solution and would avoid killing the near totality of dogs, of course who is going to pay for that? A pack of feral dogs should be kept at the zoo, to remind people and children what is behind the "sweet doggie", an animal with its istincts and who may react incontrollably if treated as if it were a human, or a toy.
Respect for Mr Erdan for avoiding shooting dogs in the past. If the dogs could be darted there must be an Israeli nonprofit that would find a place for them. Tranquilizer darts are very inexpensive and better pr than slugs.
If these new regs go through--and you are not visibly pro-coalition--stay out of the parks and reserves!