Here is Yuval's story.
Yuval Mendelovitz never met a bully he didn’t like.
A veteran of the 2006 Lebanese war, Yuval is fighting his own battle to save Israel’s pit bulls, a breed of dog that was, 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, an American Mastiff, or Amstaff, named Trip killed her in her home in June 2004. Avivit’s death was the first ever recorded to have been caused by a dog in Israel’s history, unleashing a quick and definitive reaction by the Israeli parliament (the Knesset). The Jerusalem Post reported on June 24th, 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, which was considered weak because it was not specific about breeds. After Avivit’s 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), Pitt Bull Terrier, Brazilian Fila and Rottwieller (State of Israel, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Veterinary Services and Animal Health).
Within two weeks of the law’s passage, Yuval said in a recent interview with me, 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.”
The law required that all owners of so-called bully breeds sterilize their animals at their own expense, and could only walk their dogs off their property when properly 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 also passed by a 37-1 vote (Jerusalem Post).
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, or simply left on their own, as owners of these dogs found it easier to give up the dog rather than comply with the new law.
A 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 life’s work. One by one the dogs started arriving at the door of an apartment he had just rented in Tel Aviv, and in 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, and they are thrown away, or used in fighting or animal research.
Although this was the first legislation of its kind to be breed specific in Israel, there is a long history all over the world of this kind of regulation being imposed by governments and citizens frightened by an animal they don’t understand.
A Genetic Bad Rap
Justified by the belief that these dogs were bred specifically for fighting, the then Acting Director of State Veterinary Services reported, the law that passed in 2002 and was amended in 2004 worked from the assumption of the dogs being “genotypically ruthless and dangerous”. (Israeli 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” (IJVM vol 59 [3] 2004).
The death of a child by a dog already known in other countries to be “dangerous”, however, Trip’s breed and others like it were 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 the Knesset was trying to banish from the country.
Educating a Nation
This misconception of the characteristics of specific breeds as 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 Haaretz in 2008 (link), “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 turn the hearts of many people cold simply by reputation, into a pack of well behaved, rehabilitated, and loving dogs, living in a pack, with Yuval as its leader.
They don’t 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. He has one friend who helps him cover the costs of veterinary services for the dogs, and he has been helped by the animal welfare group “Let The Animals Live” in the past with the cost of sterilizations.
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 that would otherwise have been put down after the breakup of an illegal dog fight.
“My phone does not stop ringing,” Yuval told Haaretz, “I get calls in the middle of the night regarding abandoned dogs, and I run to get them.”
“Taxi Pet” is the name of Yuval’s business, a combination animal rescue and transport service serving the nation of Israel. 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, 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 uses 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 rescue mission in the hills of Jerusalem. Yuval, with no funding or source of income, 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.
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. Being 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.
Yuval’s Vision
Two years ago, Yuval heard about a farm owned by the city of Tel Aviv, which had, he thought, been bought by Sheri Edison, the richest woman in Israel. He developed an idea for this farm, and took it to the mayor of Tel Aviv. His inspiration was to turn this farm into an education center for the people in the community, a place to house and rehabilitate the abused and abandoned animals, and to show Israelis that there is, in fact, nothing to fear.
His vision is not that of a sanctuary in the desert, but much more. Yuval’s understanding of the nature of the dogs is what gives him such an extraordinary gift of rehabilitating 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 bully breeds and, in fact, all breeds of dogs, can be wonderful, loving companions, great rescue workers and therapy pets for those with the patience to understand them.
Yuval will not be breed specific, either, as the legislation he fights against is. He wants to welcome all animals, of all breeds, to live in 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 told me, “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, and hoping that the time will come for him and his animals to come out of the darkness. “Nobody helps the pit bull,” he told me, “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 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he has coped with since the Lebanese war, Yuval is working tirelessly, with the support of a small network in Israel and on his 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 say that they want to do it too,” Yuval says.In the meantime, Yuval will never let his family of dogs down, playing with them their favorite game, chasing balloons he launches at the park, floating a prayer for a safe future for his dogs with every one.
Contact information:
USA
Sharon Avnon
917 596 6492
info@sharonavnon.com
ISRAEL
Osnat Moskovich
011 972 54 664 7884
osiforpets@gmail.com
Donations can be sent via paypal or with the chipin above:
info@sharonavnon.com
Links to various videos of Yuval and his dogs:
http://vimeo.com/5602595
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyhyOX78lE0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9X866Q0OeI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3wZefix5Go
His English Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101147323773
Link to Galit's story
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&&suggest¬e_id=422229409556#!/note.php?note_id=416631882833&id=1454042915&ref=mf
Galit is still recovering. She has metal sticks in her legs and
she is not allowed to move until her next vet visit. She is medicated.
Her vet bill is around $1000. In add' Yuval has many other dogs that need urgent medical care.
Link to Vivians' story:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/note.php?note_id=418206632833&id=1454042915&ref=mf
Link to Ifat's story:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1507603297407&oid=113116792050648#!/video/video.php?v=1507603297407&oid=113116792050648
More Videos:
Galit recovering:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAdwlm_-_Ok&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7QDS6YF-ak&feature=related
Ifat story and some clips at the vet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyhyOX78lE0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyhyOX78lE0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEKdq_gZeY4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKz80w73e7s&feature=related
Yuval on an Israeli news show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2uwQ6srEFI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eWGhm6z5-Y&feature=related
