About
“Let the Animals Live” association was founded in 1986 and is a nonprofit organization that aims to improve the protection of animals and promote their rights, including providing help to animals in need, rehabilitating them and finding adoptive homes for them.
Throughout its existence the association has raised public awareness of the importance of protecting animal life and preventing their abuse, by expanding and enforcing the Animal Welfare Act. The association, as part of its principles, does not kill animals that can be saved and works to reduce their killing by others.
The organization is active in the following domains:
Emergency call center – Handles public inquiries regarding animals in distress and provides relevant telephone information to the inquirers.
Three extrication and rescue vehicles – By which animals in distress are collected and transferred for medical treatment and rehabilitation in the clinics and shelters of the association. The vehicles are also used for capturing community cats for spaying/neutering.
“Adopt Me” project in “Gan VaNof” – A unique project of its kind in Israel, in which the students of the “Wizo Gan VaNof” youth village rehabilitate dogs from kennels and quarantines that are difficult to find homes for, due to past anxieties and traumas. This is a project with mutual benefit for both students and dogs. The boys and girls who study and live in the village are responsible for the care, rehabilitation and training of the dogs, until they are ripe and ready for a permanent home with a family that will open their heart for them. The dogs, for their part, are integrated into daily life in the village, and with a lot of love and professional accompaniment are exposed and re-learn what trust and confidence are. The dog adoption processes are customized for each family and free training classes are offered to the adoptive homes.
Animal shelter – In the shelter there are regularly more than 300 dogs and cats that receive dedicated medical care and rehabilitation by a professional team of trainers until finding a warm home for them. The shelter is located in Kfar Ruth (in Modiin area).
A reciprocal rehabilitation project in Hermon Prison – First project of its kind in Israel that connects abandoned dogs with prisoners in Hermon prison. The dogs undergo a full training process by the prisoners under professional trainer guidance to assist in their physical and emotional rehabilitation. The prisoners learn the training profession, acquire occupational habits, and receive a place to express emotions and experiences. This is a significant experience for them that benefits the prisoner rehabilitation process. After their training process the dogs are offered for adoption and move on to their new family.
Veterinary clinics – The three clinics in Ramat Gan, Ashkelon and Kfar Ruth provide medical treatments for abandoned animals, including spaying and neutering in order to reduce the over reproduction of dogs and cats. In addition, the clinics provide veterinary treatments to the general public at discounted prices.
Legal Department – Handles inquiries regarding animal cruelty and inadequate possession, handling issues related to farm animals, the animal testing industry, initiating and promoting legislation, operation of a legal clinic, public campaigns and more.
Department of Farm Animals – Handles inquiries regarding the conditions of possession of animals in farms. The department accompanies and promotes legislative procedures to improve the protection of animals, and files lawsuits and petitions in the courts.
Cooperation with municipal kennels throughout the country – Reception of dogs from municipal kennels, rehabilitating them and finding adoptive homes for them.
Let the Animals Live Clinics
The association’s veterinary clinics are located in Ramat Gan, Ashkelon and Kfar Ruth and are open to the general public. The association’s professional team provides discounted veterinary treatments to the entire population, with the aim of enabling medical treatment to any animal that needs it.
The clinics perform spaying, neutering and vaccination of dogs and cats, including community cats from around the country, in order to reduce the reproduction of abandoned animals.
Tens of thousands of abandoned dogs are killed every year in Israel by the authorities, because no one adopts them. The solution to this is spaying and neutering of the dogs, and preventing their reproduction. The association’s clinics conduct spaying and neutering surgeries for the general public at very discounted prices, in view of the aspiration that as many dogs as possible will be spayed and neutered.
The association’s vision is that every city or district in Israel will have a clinic of the association, where medical treatments will be provided to the animals at reduced prices, which will be within the reach of any person who raises an animal and will allow medical treatment to be provided to any animal.
We thank everyone who donates and helps to promote and realize this vision – together we will reduce and prevent the suffering of the animals and ensure a healthier and better life for them.
Legal Department – Let the Animals Live
More than a decade ago Let the Animals Live has founded a legal department. This is the only legal department in Israel that deals exclusively with animal rights. We had two main objectives: to provide ongoing responses to complaints, inquiries and questions from the public regarding the treatment of animals, and to promote systemic legal projects for the protection of animals.
The legal problems in the field are numerous. The legislation in Israel regarding animals is general and little, and the bodies responsible for protecting animals under the law – the police and veterinary services – in many cases do not have enough resources or desire to act.
In order to fill this void, the Animal Welfare Act granted associations working in the protection of animals the authority to act in the courts: to file criminal complaints against animal abusers, and to seek injunctions to stop acts of abuse.
The Legal Department files dozens of complaints a year in cases of animal abuse and neglect, and provides advice to people who suffer harassment due to their concern for animals. The department accompanies and promotes legislative procedures to improve animal protection, and files lawsuits and petitions in the courts. Among other things, over the years:
- We turned to court against the abuse of crocodiles at a show in Hamat Gader. The abuse was stopped, and the Supreme Court set the guiding precedent in the interpretation of the Animal Welfare Act.
- In two High Court petitions we managed to disqualify the procedure for treating community cats, and to stop the killing of cats on the grounds that they constitute a “nuisance”.
- In a series of petitions to the High Court, we forced the Ministry of Agriculture to move forward with the installation of regulations regarding the possession and transportation of animals.
- We petitioned against importing monkeys from nature to Mazor Farm and against exporting of monkeys to experimental laboratories, and we were partners in the legal battle to close Mazor Farm.
- In a lawsuit we filed we set the precedent according to which a person who abandoned a dog is obligated to cover the costs of his medical care.
- We joined a case in which academic institutions tried to issue an order requiring EL AL to fly animals for experiments – and established the precedent according to which the voice of animals should be heard in such cases, through organizations in their defense.
- We issued injunctions against geese fattening; We forced the military to install shadow nets for dogs held for guarding purposes; We stopped the shows of a circus that exploited cats; We brought an end to brutal series of experiments on animals and helped countless individual animals held in conditions of neglection.
The shelter in Kfar Ruth
About 200 dogs and 100 cats wait for an adoptive home at the Let the Animals Live Shelter located at the entrance of Kfar Ruth, and receive dedicated daily care by a professional team of veterinarians, dog handlers and dog trainers.
Any dog or cat that manages to reach a warm home makes way for another animal that is in distress and needs help. The shelter also operates a veterinary clinic that is open to the public and provides medical treatments for animals.
The association holds adoption days at the shelter, receives dogs from municipal kennels, abandoned dogs, community cats, and does not kill animals (no-kill).
