General
· The main activities of The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are carried out at its Shelter for Abandoned Animals which has been functioning since the 50s. The shelter is open to visitors from 8:00 –14:00 on Sunday to Tuesday and from 8:00 – 12:00 on Friday and Saturday.
The shelter is regularly occupied by about 180 to 250 dogs and 40 to 50 cats, all of them housed in roofed structures that open onto fenced enclosures. The animals are free to enter and leave their quarters as they like. Aggressive dogs are kept in individual, concrete kennels placed along the shelter’s fences.
· The monthly intake of the shelter is 100 – 200 dogs and cats, including many puppies and kittens.
· An average of 60 – 100 of the animals occupying the shelter are rehomed every month.
· Animals not adopted can remain for an unlimited time in the shelter, even until they are old, while those that are injured, sick or nursing puppies, that cannot be saved, are euthanized with Pentobarbiton Sodium, which is an extremely swift, and the most humane anesthetic that is used by veterinarians for immediate, painless euthanasia.
Admission
· On arrival at the shelter, every new dog is checked to determine its general and medical condition. Dogs that are unfit are placed in the dispensary for veterinary treatment. Every dog is fitted with The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' collar and identification tag and a follow-up card is opened that contains all the admission details and treatment that the dog receives until it is adopted. The new arrivals are also vaccinated against rabies.
· Since many local authorities and municipalities are beginning to make it compulsory to mark dogs with a subcutaneous electronic identification chip, in 1998, an electronic chip reader was bought and every dog arriving at the shelter is screened immediately. If it carries a chip, the authority or veterinary surgeon to which it was issued can be identified, and in this manner the dog’s owner can be located.
· In 1996,a special Shelter Management Computer Program was developed for The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that enables it to manage, follow up and update the file cards of animals delivered to it, and also to issue a series of reports on Attendance, Admissions, Adoptions, Vaccinations, Veterinary Treatment etc. Among all the Animal Protection and Welfare organizations in Israel, The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are the pioneers in this field.
· When a dog is given to adopting owners, a rabies vaccination tag with the number given by the National Veterinary Services for the current year is attached to its collar.
Accommodation in the shelter
· After preliminary assessment, treatment and classification, the newly arrived dogs and cats are allocated to the various buildings in the shelter. In this allocation, the size, age, state of health and disposition of the animals are taken into account and special consideration is given to the “sociability” of the dogs namely, whether they get on with each other without fights and power struggles. This is a matter of great importance for the dogs’ welfare because, as animals that naturally congregate in packs – no matter whether they come from good homes or the street -- they adjust rapidly to group living and are thus able to remain in the shelter, even for long periods, without sinking into depression.
Routine treatment
· All the animals in The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’s shelter and all the buildings in which they are housed are regularly cared for and maintained to the highest hygienic standards.
· Every day, all the buildings, kennels, enclosures, paths and streets are scrupu- lously cleaned of refuse and animal droppings and hosed down. In 1987 high pressure (180 atmospheres) equipment was bought that enables us to hose down the buildings and paths with a very high pressure water jet.
· Disinfection of all the buildings etc. is carried out once or twice a week with Javel (bleach) solution donated by Electrochemical Industries Ltd.
· The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals owns a flame torch that operates on domestic gas and produces a flame temperature of 14000C. for “burning” earth and concrete surfaces. This enables us to sterilize effectively areas that have been occupied by sick dogs or infected with germs and parasites
· Once every 2 - 3 weeks, especially in the summer months, the dogs and the whole area are sprayed to exterminate ticks and fleas, by means of a big motor-driven sprayer that was donated to The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in ’99 by Mr. A Kerpner, one of our principal supporters.
· The pesticides used – “Tactic”, “Reldon”, “Polaris” and others - are used in the agricultural sector. In 1999 Chimgat Ltd. that specializes in the manufacture of pesticides, offered to donate the various pesticide sprays required for the Animal Shelter.
· The shelter has a mobile, metal dipping bath of 1000 liter capacity in which heavily infested animals arriving can be dipped on admission to the shelter.
· In cases of minor injuries and slight illness the animals are treated in the dispensary at the shelter, while in more serious cases the animals are sent to one of the outside veterinary clinics with which The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is connected.
Food
· In recent years feeding the animals in the shelter was based mainly on a feed mixture made of powdered meat, minced bread and various additives. This mixture is rich in the essential food elements and has a high caloric content (28%protein, 13% fats and about 3,000calories per kilogram, according to the test results of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Feed Quality Testing Laboratory). However, its preparation involves a great deal of time-consuming manual labor. The considerable rise in raw material and transport costs made the preparation of the feed problematic.
· In 1999 agreement was reached with the Tami Group, the makers of “Dogli” and one of the leading manufacturers of food in Israel, whereby they provide the full monthly food requirements of the shelter at a specially reduced price and, in return, The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals assists in promoting Dogli’s products in various ways. Although the actual cost of the Dogli is higher than that of the feed as prepared previously, the arrangement is a considerable improvement over the previous system, mainly from the viewpoints of ease and simplicity of storage, speed of distribution and the decrease in tension in the kennels.
· In addition to the help from Dogli, the shelter receives donations of food from a number of manufacturers: Tnuva donates yearly to the shelter 8 – 12 tons of meat that has has passed the expiry date for sale in shops, but is still suitable for feeding animals.
· The “Co-op Tzafon” supermarket chain too, periodically donates quantities of food products, and various makers of meat products and sausages in the Northern Area send the shelter products that have been slightly spoilt in the process of manufacture and do not come up to the specifications for human consumption. Local Authorities’ veterinarians send to the shelter, meat that they have rejected for human consumption and occasionally the Haifa Port Customs send sausages and cheese that have been confiscated from smugglers.
Finance
· The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal’s activities are financed from a number of sources:
· Money from donors and supporters including legacies and deceased estates.
· Annual support from the Haifa Municipality. Since1995 the yearly amount has been NIS.25,000, from which municipal tax and water rates (Arnona) are offset. The amount offset was NIS.22,000 in 1995, NIS.13,000 in1996 and NIS.16,500 in 1997. The balance after offsetting remains at The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' disposal.
· In 1994 the Ministry of the Environment started supporting animal protection organizations by means of the Fund for Animals that was established in the wake of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Law, 1994.
· In 1994 the fund allocated NIS. 75,000 to The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and in 1995 – NIS. 55,000. No allocation was made in 1996 and in 1997 The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was allocated support amounting to NIS. 65,000. In 1998 only NIS.36,000 was budgeted to The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and up till September 1999 it was not known what the allocation from the fund for 1999 would be.
· The Ministry of the Environment’s support of The Israel - Haifa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is not based on an operating budget that is made available at the beginning of the year to cover current operations, but on refunding expenses against receipts for payments approved in advance by the Ministry.