Tirosh bill saves most furry animals – but streimels prevail

Legislation in question is the Humane Animal Bill which prohibits the import of fur, and textiles that include fur.

By DAN IZENBERG
MK Ronit Tirosh has agreed to allow streimels and felt in exchange for the lives of bears, mink and most other animals whose fur is used for clothing, in a private member’s bill approved earlier this week by the government in an expanded version of previous legislation that had already received government backing.
The legislation in question is the Humane Animal Bill (Protection of Animals) which prohibits the import of fur or textiles that include fur from anywhere in the world.
However, Tirosh had no choice but to exclude fox and rabbit fur from the bill, because these are used to make most streimels for haredi Asheknazi Jews and felt hats used by haredi Sephardi Jews.
She told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that she had been warned by the head of the Knesset Education Committee, MK Zevulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi) that he would not bring her original bill to a vote in committee unless she removed these animals from the import ban.
According to the original bill, fur was defined as “made of the hairsof dogs, cats or rabbits.” It was approved by the Ministerial Committeeon Legislation and by the Knesset in preliminary reading and referredto the Education Committee for preparation for its first reading whereit ran into Orlev’s opposition.
But Tirosh was able to parley Orlev’s dictate into a major achievement.The original bill called for banning the import of fur from East Asia,including China. Now the bill covers the entire world and alsoprohibits the manufacture of fur clothing in Israel.