Blood Brothers

Three brothers were rescued – two of them are still waiting for a new home

About one month ago, a telephone call was received in the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel, notifying us that some kittens were stuck behind an industrial refrigerator in Petah Tikva. The Society’s rescue team rushed to the scene and succeeded in getting out the three adorable, ginger, male kittens.

The three brothers were brought to the Society where they have been taken care of and gaining their strength for the past month. A few days ago one of the kittens was adopted, and now both Harel and Eliezer are waiting for their own warm home. They are gorgeous and cute, calm for three month old kittens and are even already castrated and immunized.

Anyone interested in adopting Harel and Eliezer, or either one of these adorable kittens, are welcome to come to the cat shelter during our working hours or may contact us by phone to get further details at: *4553.

Who Am I and What is My Name?

Kitten saved from sewer is looking for a name and new owners

Street cats do not lead an easy life, to put it mildly, being constantly exposed to danger wherever they go. Needless to say, those who have the most difficulty are the young kittens who are weak and have not yet developed an immune system, making them more susceptible to disease. The colder months make survival even more difficult, with the kittens’ search for warmth likely to lead them to places where their lives are endangered.

About a week ago a call was received in the Society’s call center. The caller was a shop-owner from Bat Yam who reported that she had been feeding a small kitten for a few weeks through an opening in the sewer near her shop. When the various authorities to whom she turned for help did not respond, she approached the Society, who immediately sent a rescue vehicle to the area. The Society’s rescue person discovered that the kitten was in the sewerage channels and in order to rescue her, the drainage entrance would have to be opened. It isn’t clear how the kitten got inside – perhaps she was born there, or perhaps she got lost in the sewers while searching for food and warmth.

The rescue person called the Veterinary Authority, Dr. Tzarfati, ,who sent a supervisor from his office along with another supervisor from the Traffic Department to open the drainage system. Then, with the help of special equipment, the rescuer managed to get the kitten out and brought her directly to the Society’s clinic.

Dr. Ayah Peri, who examined and diagnosed the kitten, said that she was dehydrated and under extreme stress. After being administered first aid, which included liquids and nourishing food, the kitten was kept in the veterinary clinic for medical observation. The kitten has gained strength in the past week and in another month will be able to move to an adoptive home.

The two-month-old, grey tabby kitten is presently enjoying the attention that is lavished on her by the staff and volunteers. While waiting to go to her new home, she is looking for a name. If you have an idea for a fitting name for this little one, you are invited to enter the Society’s Facebook page to make your suggestion and also to share the information with your friends.

We hope that this sweet kitten will find a home very soon. Should you come upon an animal in distress, please call us to report the incident so that we can help.

Bella mia

Jennifer Fleisher, a player of the Israel national basketball team, had her cat flown to her grandparent's home in the U.S.A., with the help of the Society

Jennifer Fleisher, a member of the Israel national basketball team, grew up and was raised with cats from when she was a baby. Her family was always raising cats and she was used to playing and feeding them. At this time she is unable to have a cat in her home because she is frequently flying to France, where she plays for the Challes-les-Eaux team, to the United States, where she visits her parents and family, and to Israel to represent us faithfully in the uniform of the Israeli National Team.

While Jennifer was living in Israel, and right before she moved to France, she visited a friend in Kfar Saba. There she heard the mewing of a cat, and following the sound she found a cute calico kitten, which followed her around the streets of the city. Jennifer wanted to take the kitten with her, but because she was due to leave Israel she refrained from doing so. The next day she returned to Kfar Saba still thinking of the kitten. When she found the kitten, she decided that she could not leave it on the street, and she took it with her. According to Jennifer, this is a special kitten. “She isn’t so beautiful to look at, but she has an amazing and friendly personality. I decided to call her Bella,” Jennifer said.

During the following three days Jennifer tried to find an adoptive home for the kitten, but was not successful. In the meantime the two became friends, with the kitten walking after her wherever she went and even sleeping in her bed. When it came time to fly, and she had not yet found a solution for Bella, Jennifer brought the kitten to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel – Tel Aviv. Bella, however, did not leave Jennifer’s thoughts, and she continued to search for a home for the kitten even outside of Israel.

Amazingly, her grandparents, who live in California, and whose cat had just then died, expressed interest in adopting Bella. Jennifer contacted people from the Society, who after making various enquiries, began the preparations for sending Bella to the United States. Since we are talking about a long procedure, which includes a three month wait for blood tests and inoculations, Bella stayed at the cat boarding facility of the Society and was pampered by the staff.

This week the waiting period was over; Bella flew to the United States and arrived safely at her new home in California. “Bella’s acclimation was very quick,” Jennifer tells us. “The large selection of toys that they bought her did not impress her and she prefers spending most of her time on the laps of my grandpa”.

How much evil can be bought?

Before we buy a purebred dog, especially if it is imported from abroad, it is a good idea to know the difficult implications. Attorney Idan Abuhav writes about this painful phenomenon

The gates of immigration to Israel are open to all those who want to import dogs and cats, most of them purebreds, which are sold for thousands of dollars and are used as business in every way, exactly that!. Only here we are not talking about a product, but about thousands of animals, mainly dogs, who will eventually be abandoned and, the best solution of all, arrive at the various voluntary agencies and societies for helping animals. Anyone who buys a purebred dog, should know what happens to the dog from the time it is separated from its mother (too early sometimes) until it arrives in your home. Maybe it is worthwhile to think twice about paying a fortune for a purebred dog that is shipped by airplane to Israel, or instead adopt one of the many abandoned dogs who are crying out for an adoptive home, waiting in our Society.

A simple glance at the “second-hand”-websites reveals that many puppies of purebreds are for sale. Is any test being done about the quality of the adoption and the ability to deal with the care of the dog? As it seems, the only thing that is important to the owners of the puppies is the readiness for you to come up with the money and, also, when you have a number of small puppies in your house, at some stage you simply want to part with them, even at a price lower than “market price”.

At the websites of many importers it is possible to purchase puppies exactly the same way as you purchase any other product on the internet, by credit card. This leads to the fact that the buyer does not know what he is buying – both in the aspect of the personality of the dog and in the aspect of its health – not to mention that the whole process of checking vaccinations is problematic.

In contrast to people for whom dogs are no more than a business, the important parameter that is checked out in every responsible society, in every organization for animal welfare that has self respect, is the character, the personality, of the prospective buyer of the animal. Even if the seller of the animal is a righteous and trustworthy person, does he make an effort to receive some more details from or about the would-be purchaser? Perhaps we are speaking of a person buying a dog who does not relate to dogs; maybe he is buying a dog that is not appropriate for him or his family. The non-compatibility will lead most of the time to the abandonment of the dog or its abuse.

Another common method of purchasing a dog is to request of someone who is going abroad to also buy you a dog. Just like that! The result is that most likely the puppy is bought by someone who has no full understanding if the dog may be appropriate to their future owners. This same willing-to-please-you person could buy you a dog which is very young (“so cute”) or who does not take a certain dog because of its external appearance, which sometimes is misleading. The puppy comes to its new owners, and from this time on the road to troubles and problems is often short.

According to testimony of many buyers, often dogs are taken from their mothers before they reach the age of adoption. According to Dr. Ayah Peri of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel, taking a puppy from its mother before it reaches the age of 8 weeks can cause trauma. In addition to this, the puppies that are taken from their mothers go through many hands, and since they are not vaccinated they are very sensitive to various diseases and dangers such as Parvo and Rabies. In the absence of veterinary supervision this can cause their death. And here a situation is created where the buyer, through no fault of his own, is abetting terrible suffering, or worse, to puppies by putting money into this economic (business) sector.

The Ministry of Agriculture determined a number of parameters for importing dogs that are based on regulation for importing animals. What happens to the dogs that do not stand up to the standards of the Ministry? Unfortunately these dogs are sentenced to death in Israel or are sent back to the countries from where they came, even when it is not certain if there is someone waiting to accept them back. An example of this are the Afghan puppies last year that stayed at the airport in Israel for a number of days in difficult conditions and afterwards those who were still alive were supposed to return to the airport in Bangkok.

Cooperating with cruel dog sellers
The essence of this kind of purchasing is cooperating with the sellers, whose actions and motives are not those that are for the good of the dog. Often a puppy is sold when it is ill, due to lack of proper care in the hands of the seller. The result is that the seller receives his money and uses it to order additional puppies and import them, while the desperate buyer many times has to invest thousands of shekels in veterinary care for the dog, in the best case scenario, or is in pain due to the loss upon the death of the puppy, in the worst case.

Abuse does not start in Israel. In Eastern Europe and in the Far East there is no real supervision of the breeding of dogs. The dogs come consistently from countries where people have trouble supporting themselves and it is reasonable to assume that the puppies are brought up in disgraceful conditions. Any injection of money to this industry will constitute a continuation of the situation.

These breeding-conditions, in the end, create problem dogs that are growing up with an injured personality, and it is very hard to train them.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel, Tel Aviv-Yafo, receives on a constant base many dogs whose owners do not want them after they have discovered that they are not suitable for apartment houses, or they cannot be trained. For dogs of this type, in spite of their beauty, it is very hard to find a new warm home.

Legislation
The situation is illogical. On one hand the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel works shoulder to shoulder with the Agriculture Ministry in the halls of the Knesset in order to promote the amendment to the Law for [the Prevention of] Cruelty to Animals that would guarantee a subsidy from the state for the neutering and castration of dogs and cats. On the other hand, the same Ministry, which is fighting for the budgeting of the law, enables this industry to worsen the situation of dogs in Israel, which as is known suffers from a great surplus number of dogs as opposed to those being adopted – both by bringing in more dogs into the country and also by not castrating or neutering these dogs (because they are a business-commodity). Thus a situation is created that the descendents of the imported dogs and cats end up as residents of the shelters of the societies and provide an additional financial burden on the philanthropic organizations that are already collapsing under the expenses they have to make for saving animals.

The solution should be permission to import animals only to someone who will conform to strict regulations, and a simple solution will be the obligation to neuter or castrate every dog or cat that comes into the country. This will decrease the suffering that these animals endure and the future suffering of the females whose new owners intend to use to recap their investment in their purchase.