“This bloody campaign resulted in killing many dogs, [by] shooting, hanging, abusing, running over them by cars,” the Animal and Environment Association in Bethlehem stated.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

The mayor of Hebron offered cash incentives towards residents of the city who are willing to slay stray dogs, leading to the slaughter of canines in the streets and outrage from Palestinian animal rights groups.

“Whoever kills a stray dog or delivers to us a stray dog that’s been killed, we are willing to reward him with 20 shekels ($5.50) or each dog delivered to us,” Tayseer Abu Sneineh told an Arabic-language radio station last Wednesday.

Abu Sneineh, who has been mayor of Hebron since 2017, was convicted of terrorism due to his involvement in a deadly attack on a yeshiva which killed six, including two American and three Canadian citizens. He spent just three years in an Israeli prison before being released in a 1983 prisoner exchange.

Social media footage showed Hebron residents immediately heeding Abu Sneineh’s call, by chasing down stray dogs and killing them for the cash reward.

Terrible documentation:
The municipality of Hebron, dealing with the proliferation of dogs in the city, decided to encourage residents to kill dogs for $7 to kill a dog. pic.twitter.com/Bm6Gni7zzk

— H&A (@HanneyAngel) November 3, 2022

The Animal and Environment Association in Bethlehem, which is the only animal shelter in PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria, released a statement on their Facebook page condemning Abu Sneineh’s offer.

“This bloody campaign resulted in killing many dogs, [by] shooting, hanging, abusing, running over them by cars,” they wrote. “What happened today is beyond humanity and ethics. No religion would accept such barbaric actions toward innocent animals.”

Despite the criticism, Abu Sneineh doubled down on the initiative in a subsequent radio interview on Friday.

Comparing the stray dogs to feral pigs in Jordan, Abu Sneineh insisted that a municipal initiative which rewards locals for eliminating a threat to public safety is legitimate

“I’ve had children brought to my home after having been bitten by stray dogs and their condition was extremely critical…this is a real problem that needs a solution,” he said.

Pro-Israel advocate and Arab-Israeli IDF veteran Yoseph Haddad spoke out about the program on Twitter.

“What is happening in Hebron is simply shocking,” he wrote.

“Dozens of dogs are being brutally abused and mistreated, and why? Because the mayor of Hebron offered 20 shekels for every dog ​​killed. This is a culture of murderous violence towards helpless animals.”

The post Hebron Arabs torture, massacre stray dogs for cash reward from mayor appeared first on World Israel News.

The mocking reaction may give the legislators pause, although the hardliners consider owning such animals as anti-Muslim.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A new Iranian law was proposed last month to make owning all pets illegal, but the backlash to it has been fierce.

So far, 75 hardliners have signed onto the bill, agreeing with its reasoning that owning rabbits, cats, dogs and the like is a “destructive social problem” that could lead eventually to a change in the Iranian-Muslim lifestyle “by exchanging people and family ties for feelings and emotional relationships with animals.”

The actual wording of the law lumps together animals that truly belong in the wild with those that are time-honored pets, naming “crocodiles, turtles, snakes, lizards, cats, mice, rabbits, dogs and other unclean animals like monkeys.”

The prohibition includes “importing, caring for, assisting with breeding, breeding, buying or selling, moving, transporting or walking and keeping” these “wild, exotic, harmful and dangerous animals at home.”

Some of the penalties included in the legislation: The fine for violation of the law can be up to 30 times the minimum wage; the animal would be confiscated; and if police stop a car with a pet in the back, the vehicle would be impounded for three months. Moreover, people owning dogs (or cats) would not be able to rent a home.

Police tried banning dogs from public spaces in Tehran in July, reportedly without much success. RadioFreeEurope reported that month that Iranian chief prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said that loving dogs is part of the “degenerate culture of the West,” and “should not be part of Muslims’ lives.”

The mocking reaction in social media throws doubt on whether the law will be upheld even if it does pass.

“How many times have cats tried to devour you that you see them as wild, harmful and dangerous?” one journalist tweeted in reaction to the rationalization for the law.

One woman, quoted in a combined news agency report in Walla, said people wouldn’t obey even if they are afraid of the consequences.

“Why should I imprison [my dog] at home?” she said. “The legislators probably assume that young couples today have no children because they have a pet dog, but that’s stupid. It’s not because of the dogs, but because of the economic situation that does not allow us to have children. Once they banned satellite TV broadcasts, but people kept watching them although with fear and anxiety. People will continue to keep animals at home in order to protect them.”

The post Iranian law proposed to ban all pets appeared first on World Israel News.

Salim Sharif, a 20-year old blind Arab-Israeli, breaks a taboo as he introduces his hometown of Nazareth to its first guide dog, overcoming complaints from Muslim neighbors that he is bringing impurity to the city.

The post WATCH: Nazareth’s first guide dog tests Islamic taboo appeared first on World Israel News.