Israel: A Champion For Bullies (Long Version Not Published)

- One mans mission to change the way a nation feels about bully breeds

By Catherine Walsh

Yuval Mendelovich never met a bully he didnt like.

A veteran of the 2006 Lebanese war, Yuval is fighting his own battle to save Israels pit bulls and
mastiffs, two breeds of dog that were, among others, declared illegal to breed or import into Israel
after the death of a child in 2004.

A Tragic Beginning

Avivit Ganon was four years old when the family dog, and American Mastiff, or Amstaff, named Trip,
killed her in her home in June 2004. Avivits death was the first ever recorded to have been caused
by a dog in Israels history, unleashing a quick and definitive reaction by the Israeli Parliament (The
Knesset).

The Jerusalem Post reported on June 24
th
, 2004 that the Knesset had overwhelmingly passed a law
banning the ownership, breeding and importation of dangerous dogs. This move followed a law
passed in 2002 regulating such dogs, considered weak at the time because it was not specific about
breeds. After Avivits death, however, the law was changed, with a 41-3 vote, making it clear what
was meant by dangerous dog.

Beginning in June 2004, the dogs to be banned were the American Staffordshire Bull Terrier
(Amstaff), Bull Terrier, Argentinean Dogo, Japanese Tosa, Staffordshire Bull Terrier (English Staff),
Pit Bull Terrier, Brazilian Fila and Rottweiler.

Within two weeks of the laws passage, Yuval said in a recent interview, the dogs started showing up
at his door. Something amazing happened, he said, I had sixteen pit bulls on my roof that came
from here and there because people started throwing them out on the street. Having already been
active in bully breed rescue, Yuval was the only person known in the area who was willing to take
them in.

The law required all owners of so-called bully breeds to sterilize their animals at their own expense,
and also prevented them from walking their dogs off their private property unless muzzled and
leashed. A further bill sponsored by United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni, establishing the
authorities rights to seize any dog it deemed dangerous, was passed by 37-1.

Alarmed by the death of the little girl, and the draconian severity of the new regulations, many
owners of bully breeds found it easier to simply abandon their dogs to the streets, or to release them
to the underground dog fighting market. Shelters were flooded with bully breed dogs, while some
dogs were simply let go, as some owners of these dogs preferred giving them up rather than
complying with the new law.

Hopeful Passage

An animal lover all his life, with a special fondness for pit bulls, Yuval, a passionate thirty-one year
old, had found his lifes work. One by one the dogs started arriving at the door of an apartment he
had recently rented in central Israel, and with just two rooms and a rooftop, I started to arrange it,
Yuval says, and we became like a pack, like in nature, and then I understood a lot of things I learned
about as a child.
Having grown up in Nahariya, near the Lebanese border, Yuval was constantly surrounded by
animals, and understood from an early age that one must be educated about the nature of an animal
to properly care for it. Too many people, Yuval says, misunderstand bully breeds like the pit bull,
resulting in the dogs being thrown away or used in fighting or animal research.

Although this was the first legislation of its kind in Israel to be breed specific, there is a long history
of this kind of regulation being imposed by governments and citizens in other countries frightened
by an animal they dont understand.

A Genetic Bad Rap

Feeling justified by the belief that these dogs were bred specifically for fighting, the then Acting
Director of State Veterinary Services reported, the law that was amended in 2004 to be breed
specific worked from the assumption of the dogs being genotypically ruthless and dangerous.
(Israel Journal of Veterinary Medicine vol. 59 [3] 2004)

The reality is, according to the Hebrew version of the protest against Breed Specific Legislation
(BSL) filed by the Israel Medical Veterinary Association, it is not possible to define a dog as
dangerous simply by stating its breed. In fact, a gene specifying a breed has not been found in dogs,
nor is there any specific aggression gene, so the prejudice against bully breeds is born more from a
phenotypic (outside appearance) point of view than from a scientific one.

Further, the argument against BSL continues, in almost all breeds some specimens could be
aggressive, depending mostly on the way the dogs are raised...the responsibility for dog aggression
is entirely reliant upon the person behind the dog. (Israel Journal of Veterinary Medicine vol. 59 [3]
2004)

The death of a child by a dog already known in other countries to be dangerous, however, Trips
breed along with others like it was caught in the knee-jerk reaction of a nation in shock. It was
easier to settle the shaken populace with a sweeping ban of the dog, rather than work to regulate the
behavior of the owners of the dog who were, in fact, the ones responsible for the aggression.

Educating a Nation

This misconception of the characteristics of specific breeds being dangerous is just the thing Yuval is
trying to eradicate in Israel.

Beyond rescuing and housing the dogs no one else wants, Yuval is working for a larger goal: to
change the way people think about so-called dangerous dogs.

It begins, he says, with understanding. The dogs arrive with terrible traumas, Yuval reported to the
Israeli news agency Haaretz in July 2008, after a short period I recognize their issues and fears and
start bringing them back to life, building their confidence and giving them a calm environment to
live in. Many of them come with bite signs, scars and injuries, but after a short period they become
loving and turn into the sweetest things.

He has now turned his tiny apartment filled with dogs that by reputation turn the hearts of many
people cold into a pack of well behaved, rehabilitated and loving dogs. They live in a pack, with
Yuval as their leader.

They dont all live with him either. Over the years, Yuval has surrounded himself with a network of
people who, like him, want to help rescue these misunderstood animals. His close friends work as
foster parents to the dogs Yuval has no room for, and many dogs have been adopted by carefully
screened people. He has a friend who helps him cover the costs of veterinary services for the dogs
when he is able to, and he has been helped with the cost of sterilizations by the animal welfare group
Let The Animals Live. In exchange for surgical help, Yuval stays available to take any bully breeds off
the hands of Let The Animals Live that may end up at their door.

Many of these dogs are rescued from dog fighting operations, which are reported to him at all hours
of the day and night, causing him to drive all over Israel in his Taxi Pet ambulance to pick up the
dogs, many of who would otherwise have been put down after the break up of an illegal dog fight.
My phone does not stop ringing, Yuval told Haaretz in 2008, I get calls in the middle of the night
regarding abandoned dogs, and I run to get them.

Taxi Pet is the name of Yuvals business, a combination animal rescue and transport service
serving the Tel Aviv area. As his only source of income, Yuval gives rides to people and their animals
at a third of the cost a normal Israeli taxi would charge someone transporting an animal, at the same
time keeping the word out about the work he is doing with the dogs. When not ferrying animals and
their people around Tel Aviv, he has used his ambulance to rescue animals all over Israel, his
reputation now being that of the haven of last resort for bully breeds.

The Taxi Pet and ambulance service are stalled at the moment, however, after the vehicle broke
down during a recent puppy resuce mission in the hills of Jerusalem. Yuval, with no funding or
source of income without his taxi, is in need of help, and soon. I walk a rope that is very very thin,
trading favors, working with people, Yuval says. He has somehow made it work until now.

But now the neighbors are impatient, and they have asked him, in a pleasant way, to move to
another location. The army is also calling. As a reservist for the Israeli Defense Forces, Yuval is
expected soon to do his routine service with his unit, which will take him away from his animals and
his work, at a time when he is fighting to stay in his home.

It is a time, he says, when he needs more than ever, to let people know of his hopes for the future of
these dogs.

Yuvals Vision

Two years ago, Yuval heard about a farm formerly owned by the city of Tel Aviv, which had, he
heard, been bought by billionaire Shari Arison, the owner of Israels largest bank, Bank Hapoalim,
and the richest woman in Israel. He developed and idea for this farm, and took it to the mayor of Tel
Aviv Ron Huldai. His inspiration was to turn this farm into an education center for the people and
the community, a place to house and rehabilitate abused and abandoned animals, and to show
Israelis that there is, in fact, nothing to fear from bully breeds dogs.

His vision is not just that of a sanctuary in the desert, but much more. Yuvals understanding of a
dogs nature is what gives him such an extraordinary gift to rehabilitate them. He wants to pass this
knowledge on to the children of Israel, so future generations will understand that not only is breed
specific legislation misinformed, it is also cruel. He wants to show, he says, that all dogs, including
bully breeds, can be wonderful, loving companions, great rescue workers and therapy pets for those
with the patience to understand and train them.

Yuval will not discriminate against any breed of dog, either, as the legislation he fights against does.
He wants to welcome all animals, of all breeds, to live at his center, and he wants to teach about the
mind of the animal, and how it is so much like our own. Everybody will come from all over the
country and we will do it like a school, he says. We will educate children and families to know not
just pit bulls, but about all animals: what we mean when you see a cat, when you see a dog, when
you see a monkey. Love has many faces, Yuval says.

The mayor of Tel Aviv never called him back, however, and Yuval is left caring for his dogs in any
way he can, hoping that the time will come for him and his animals to come out of the darkness.
Nobody helps the pit bull, he says, they help the Labrador, but nobody helps the pit bull.

A Call For Help

Sleeping only four hours a day, partly due to his caring for the animals, and partly from the PTSD he
has been coping with since the Lebanese war, Yuval is working tirelessly, with the support of a small
network in Israel that has helped him build a new website, and a page on Facebook, to get the word
out about the bullies in his care.

I want to save dogs, and the only way is to share with the public, to tell the mayor of Tel Aviv so
people in other towns can see what we are doing, and to say that they want to do it too, Yuval says.

Time is running out for Yuval and his dogs. Under pressure to relocate, he is busy packing up what
he can, and relying on a few friends who have come to help him, but it is unclear in a nation that has
turned its back on the bully breeds what will happen in the future. In the meantime, Yuval is
committed to only the care and comfort of his family of dogs, playing with them their favorite game
by launching small balloons they can chase in the park. With each balloon he sends a prayer into the
breeze, one for a happy and safe future for his dogs, and all the animals of Israel.



Written for Best Friends Animal Society, but unpublished. Re-written in a shorter version which was
published July 14, 2009