AR-News: an urgent message for a wide distribution

Fri Feb 20 19:42:12 EST 2004

From: The Cat Welfare Society Of Israel 

U R G E N T   M E S S A G E
f o r   w i d e   d i s t r i b u t i o n

Dear Cat Lovers

No doubt you have heard about the mass slaughtering of feral cats which is being effected
all over Israel at present as a result of an outbreak of rabies in the Sharon area. 
In most cases, the rabies has come as a result of negligence on the part of the authorities
over the past years, and especially as a result of the lack of implementation of suitable preventatives,
(for example - oral vaccination of wild animals, a stipulation that all house pets must be vaccinated
against rabies, and charging a reasonable and realistic price for such a vaccine).
This brutal slaughtering of cats is ineffective in the battle to prevent the rabies spreading.
It can be seen as a scapegoat to cover up the Veterinary Services' great failure to totally contain rabies.
On the Veterinary Services' webpage, in this updated sheet, it can be clearly seen that cats are in fact
not the transmitters of rabies.
To view statistics proving that the cat is not a rabies vector in Israel please follow links below.
Link to map of confirmed rabies cases in Israel by species for 2004: 
(please note: links to maps for previous years are at the bottom of the page)
http://agri3.huji.ac.il/~yakobson/rabheb/mapa2004.html
Link to article entitled
An Epidemiological retrospective study of rabies diagnosis and control in Israel 1948-1997
http://www.isrvma.org/archives/53_4/rab_epidem.htm
For Hebrew readers additional statistics are available at:
http://agri3.huji.ac.il/~yakobson/rabheb/
Again and again, we see that the Veterinary Service show hatred of street cats
and use all means to find excuses for their extermination.

Sadly, these days cats are dying in pain and suffering from the poison spread 
by the Veterinary Services in the "Neve Itamar" neighborhood 
(visit our webpage for an update: http://www.cats.org.il/index.php). 
Also, in Kfar-Saba, cats are being captured and exterminated which is occurring 
despite an agreement reached with the local Veterinary Services that street cats 
would be captured and taken to a shelter for humane quarantine.

Tough sights and updates reach us endlessly from our operatives in the field.
It is so difficult to deal with the harsh images of dying cats, but we must remember 
that this issue - the poisoning of innocent street cats - is a window of opportunity for us
to prove to the public in Israel that we will not abandon these creatures, and that we will 
revolt in our endeavours to rescue them from their current fate..

A two-minute movie is attached. This was filmed by a private investigator hired by the Society,
and documents the cruel death of a sweet and nurtured cat during a horrific poisoning 
which took place about three weeks ago in "Givat Ada". 

click to view the movie http://www.cats.org.il/images/engsmall.mpeg

Please take two minutes of your time to view this movie. It is not pleasant,
but nothing compared to the suffering of that poor sweetie, and an example of what other cats 
who are being poisoned these days go through.. Remember that the fight against the well-oiled
killing machine of the Veterinary Services will be hard and might take months! We beg of you 
not to break, but to endure along with us, and we will not surrender! Let us recall this sweet gray cat
and persist in our protest. Let us organize donations to the Society to enable us to protest 
and persist in your name.
The Cat Welfare Society will stand in the front line, but only with the support of all you cat-lovers
can we win these endeavours.

What must we do?

Donate:
The creation of a media echo and the ongoing public struggle
will cost a lot of money which we do not have at present. 
Please arrange a monthly donation for the funding of the process 
as well as the continuation of the society's various activities. 
For donations, dial 058-392922. 
You can also donate through our website http://www.cats.org.il/indexa.php?id=3.
or at http://www.israelcatrescue.com

Sign the Petition Supporting the Struggle:
Please distribute this link to as many people can you can and encourage them to sign. 
We need as many signatures as we can get. http://www.cats.org.il/index.php?id=141

Write Protest Letter and Apply Constant Pressure on the Authorities:
http://www.cats.org.il/index.php?id=129
We must apply pressure on the Veterinary Services. A united community has the power to do so.
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