Hakol Chai to Demonstrate at Tel Aviv City Council Meeting; Charity Calls for a Ban on Working Horses

PRESS RELEASE

Tel Aviv, December 24, 2007

Hakol Chai, joined by the Green Party, will demonstrate at Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Hall on Sunday, December 30th, 2007, at 3:30 P.M. during a special meeting of the City Council on the subject of protection for horses and donkeys carrying loads within the city. Hakol Chai urges the Council to follow the lead of other cities around the world, including Toronto and Paris, and ban working horses and donkeys in Tel-Aviv-Jaffa. New-York City is also considering such a ban. Working horses and donkeys in the city endanger pedestrians and drivers, as well as cause harm to the horses.

"Horses and donkeys are not vehicles," says Hakol Chai representative Omer Ginzburg.

"In the 21st century, it is completely inappropriate to still be using and abusing horses and donkeys as work animals."

Overloaded, malnourished animals, scarred from beatings, are a common sight in the city. Forced to haul building materials, metal, glass and old things (alte zachen), they have no water or shade in the hot sun, no appropriate housing, and no veterinary or farrier care. Every step they take is agony. Sometimes, they collapse in the street, blocking traffic. After regular work hours, they may be forced to give rides in exchange for a few shekels, or may become the playthings of children. They can be seen tied up amid rusty objects and garbage, which exposes them to tetanus. When they become too weak to work, they are abandoned to starve. Hakol Chai's website, www.chai-online.org, features the stories of several horses the charity rescued from the brink of death in Jaffa, after calls to the municipality were ignored.

A municipal regulation requires horse owners to have a permit to hold horses, to be granted only after the owner demonstrates that adequate housing, medical care, and food are provided, but the law is not enforced.

Hakol Chai, the Israeli sister charity of Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI), works to protect animals in Israel and to promote humane education.

Contact: Omer Ginzburg

(050) 330-5006 or (03) 624-3242