The Society for the Prevention of Animal Cruelty (SPCA) in Israel has called on the public to demand Israel's government address the crisis of abandoned dogs in the South.
The organization has put together a petition demanding that the government budget a five-year plan in cooperation with Israel's animal welfare groups and the Agriculture, Environmental Protection and Finance ministries to tackle this problem.
The crisis of stray abandoned dogs is a massive problem in many parts of the country. Dogs are often left abandoned in remote areas and landfills, occasionally by illegal puppy mills, according to the SPCA.
By far, the area in Israel with the most abandoned dogs living in horrible and unsanitary conditions is the South, particularly around Beersheba, Dimona and Arad.
In June 2020, the SPCA had uncovered a massive garbage-filled landfill near Arad that is home to hundreds of stray dogs. Many of these dogs are covered in scars and with injuries, fighting over scraps of food in unsanitary conditions. Since they haven’t been spayed or neutered, more dogs will be born into this environment.
But the crisis has only gotten worse in 2021, with the number of dogs abandoned in the periphery increasing every day, SPCA Israel said.
This is especially dangerous because these conditions can lead to the spread of dangerous diseases among the dogs, and some of them, such as rabies, can be fatal to humans.
The petition can be found here.