More than 600,000 animals were shipped to Israel during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the organization Animals Now, despite promises made by the Agriculture Ministry and Minister Alon Schuster of Blue and White to end the practice.
The ministry reported that in 2020 marked a decrease of 13% of live animals shipped to Israel from 2019.
The Blue and White platform stated that "the party will support a bill that will forbid the transport of live animals, and will put the bill to be voted on in the Knesset."
According to Animals Now, already three elections ago in the 20th Knesset, Likud MK Miki Zohar put up a bill in 2018 to gradually ease off the live transport of animals to Israel. In the 23rd Knesset, the bill garnered support from different parties across the political spectrum. However, the bill never passed into law due to the upcoming elections in March.
The State Comptroller report of May 2020 stated that the conditions of animals that were transported to Israel brought "extreme harm and pain" to the animals and that the conditions of the transports were cruel. Yet, no sanctions were levied on the importers of these transports.
According to a poll conducted by iPanel, approximately 86% of the Israeli public supported a bill to stop the transport of live animals and 91% thought that the transports constituted animal cruelty. Some 245 lawyers, professors of law and rabbis of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel signed a statement stating to stop the live transport of animals, saying it constituted animal cruelty.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Prof. Marylouise McLaws, a World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist, said, "I think it gets to a point where it cannot be safe... We must stop."
She suggested that "some plague was inevitable. As long as you push in the natural environment and have nowhere to go, humans and animals will mix with each other, and not in a respectful way."
Part of the reason for live shipments is the price of fresh meat. When Yair Lapid was finance minister, he changed and, at times, abolished tariffs on such shipments, which allowed for fresh meats to be purchased at lower prices, about 20% lower.
Animals Now organization has called upon the Knesset to stop the practice of live animal shipments to Israel.