Tel Aviv Bans Cart Horses - Chronology of CHAI's campaign

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Elizabeth Forel <elizforel

elizforel

Wed, Nov 11, 2009 7:19 am

Tel Aviv Bans Cart Horses - Chronology of CHAI's campaign

 

 

PLEASE FORWARD

 

Yesterday, I sent out the wonderful news about the city of Tel Aviv banning cart horses. Similar to what we have in Baltimore, these horses pull carts filled with produce, merchandise and junk for sale. They are often considerably overloaded and the horses and donkeys are truly beasts of burden - horse slaves. It is not unusual to see emaciated and sickly horses beaten to do their job - evidence of just how cruel man or woman can be to these gentle animals who have no voice.

 

But CHAI - Concern for Helping Animals in Israel - was their voice - and what a voice it was. Please read this chronology of their inspiring, persistent work on this campaign. It took 10 years, which is not surprising when one is dealing with animal issues.

 

Elizabeth Forel

Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages / NYC

www.banhdc.org

www.horseswithoutcarriages.org (this year -12/5/09)

 

Any questions about this - please direct them to Nina Natelson at chai_us

 

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November 10, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tel Aviv Bans Horse-Drawn Carts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAI's 10-year campaign to get cart horses banned from the streets of Tel Aviv achieved success this past week when the city announced that, at long last, it has banned the practice.

 

Highlights of CHAI's campaign:

 

Summer 1999 — In response to Tel Aviv officials' continued refusal to take action in response to CHAI's complaints about the problem of abused horses in the city, CHAI rescues and rehabilitates severely abused horses to raise awareness of the plight of these animals, demanding routine inspections and licensing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of CHAI's rescued and rehabilitated horses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2001 — CHAI's sister charity in Israel, Hakol Chai, reports a major abuser of horses in Jaffa to authorities — a man named Nissim, who starved and sold horses, provided no veterinary care, and even hacked them apart with an axe in front of each other and sold their meat in the market as beef. Hakol Chai's undercover video of the killings airs on TV, and Nissim's place is temporarily closed down.

 

 

 

 

 

Horse abuse in Jaffa exposed by Hakol Chai

 

 

 

 

2003 — Nissim reopens his facility and Hakol Chai organizes a raid on his place, exposing horrendous cruelty and shutting him down permanently. Still, the city refuses to investigate the condition of other horses in the city and remove those being abused from their abusers. Hakol Chai determines that regulations will not stop the abuse and calls for a complete ban.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hakol Chai's footage of abused donkeys pulling heavy loads airs on Kolbotek, a popular TV program. This photo shows a donkey whose ears were cut off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 2005 — Hakol Chai's attorney writes to the Ministry of Transportation and Mayors of cities around Israel, urging them to ban the practice of horses pulling heavy carts. Hakol Chai begins pressuring the City Council to issue a ban. Hakol Chai's attorney submits a detailed proposal and recommendations to the City Council, asking it to call a meeting to discuss the problem and its recommendations. In response to Hakol Chai's campaign, cart horse owners begin heavily lobbying the Mayor's office to prevent the enactment of a ban, and the Mayor is reluctant to take action against this special interest group.

 

Hakol Chai and CHAI organize an international letter-writing campaign, asking that appeals be sent to the Chairperson of the Education, Culture, and Sports Committee in the Knesset, the Minister of Education, Culture, and Sports, the Minister of Transportation, and the Mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa asking them to ban the use of horse-drawn carts to haul heavy loads through busy city streets.

 

Two more years of pressure follow.

 

Spring 2007 — Hakol Chai makes presentations in Tel Aviv schools to raise awareness among students about the suffering of cart horses and the need to protest their treatment. At an annual conference for Tel Aviv schools participating in the "Breakthrough" program, in which students work to make a difference on a social or environmental problem of their choosing, students of the Democratic School show a film shot by Hakol Chai documenting the horse/donkey abuse problem in the city and promote the cart horse case to a panel of local authorities, including the Tel Aviv municipal veterinarian.

 

Fall 2007 — Hakol Chai mounts posters throughout Jaffa, the old part of Tel Aviv where these animals are used as beasts of burden, announcing "A horse is not a truck! Hundreds of miserable horses and donkeys live around us. Don't be indifferent! If you see a horse or donkey in distress, demand that the city act!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 2007 — For the first time, as a result of Hakol Chai's campaign, the Tel Aviv City Council calls a special session to address the problem of horse abuse in the city. At that meeting, Tel Aviv's municipal veterinarian agrees with Hakol Chai that abuse cannot be prevented through regulations, especially since the city has neither the funds to regularly inspect the horses nor a facility to house them if they remove them from their abusers. Still, the Mayor refuses to ban the practice, saying he will make greater efforts to enforce existing regulations.

 

Outside the meeting, at the entrance to City Hall, Hakol Chai activists demonstrate, joined by the Green Party and other organizations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the entrance to City Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 2008 — 350 people crowd into a popular Tel Aviv venue in support of Hakol Chai's campaign, where popular singers Asaf Amdurski, Ram Orion, and Billy Levi have volunteered to perform. CHAI / Hakol Chai's campaign in Israel is now part of an international coalition of organizations throughout the world called Horses Without Carriages International, which seeks to end horse-drawn carts and carriages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Popular singer Asaf Amdurski was among those who volunteered

in support of Hakol Chai's campaign. Photo: Keren Manor

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 2009 — Hakol Chai stages a civil disobedience demonstration at the entrance to City Hall. Dozens of Hakol Chai protestors carrying signs saying "Horses and donkeys are not vehicles,Animals are not cars,Carriages and carts are a dead trend,They're hurting; don't you care?" and "Stop Animal Abuse" block the entrance to Tel Aviv's City Hall to protest the Mayor's continued refusal to ban horse-drawn carts. The protesters distribute hundreds of pamphlets explaining the plight of the horses to pedestrians on one of the city's busiest streets, which runs in front of City Hall, and to city employees as they enter and exit the building. Some of the protesters lay on the ground as if they were dead to depict what becomes of the abused animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the entrance to City Hall. Photo: Noa Magger

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 2009 — Tel Aviv's Mayor, at long last, bans horse-drawn carts from the city.

 

Says CHAI's Director, Nina Natelson "We are pleased that, at long last, there will no longer be sights of thin, injured, beaten cart horses in Tel Aviv, and we will continue pressing Mayors of other cities in Israel to issue similar bans."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With your support, we are making a difference. Please continue to support CHAI's efforts on behalf of Israel's animals, in particular, the development, publishing, and translation of our humane education curriculums for secular and religious schools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Send your tax-deductible contributions to CHAI at

POB 3341, Alexandria, VA 22302, USA, or

 

 

donate through our website.

 

 

 

 

Yours for a more compassionate world,

 

 

 

Nina Natelson

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAI - Concern for Helping Animals in Israel

PO Box 3341, Alexandria, VA 22302

 

 

 

 

Email:

chai_us

 

Phone:

703-658-9650

Web:

http://www.chai-online.org