Yesterday we received the response of the Civil Administration, the Nature and Parks Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture to a letter by Israel’s animal welfare organizations regarding the violent massacre of hundreds of crocodiles in Petza’el.
The Civil Administration and the Nature and Parks Authority’s claims regarding an unfounded concern that the crocodiles could be used for a “terrorist attack”, could escape, or that foreign individuals could infiltrate the farm are bizarre to say the least. What would have been a reasonable and humane measure against said “terrorist attack” and public endangerment? To improve the farm’s fence or to kill all the crocodiles? And if anyone is truly convinced that the latter is the right option, why choose to do it at night, secretively, and not respond to the freedom of information requests we have filed? Why lie to us and deny when we inquired prior to massacre if there was any intention to harm the crocodiles?
The authorities also claim that the reason for the killing was to stop the animals from further suffering. Would it make more sense to improve their living conditions at the farm or to kill them as if it was euthanasia, given that the authorities specifically mentioned in their report that many of the crocodiles were healthy and fat.
TheCivil Administration and the Nature and Parks Authority now declare that they have no intention of investigating this horrific incident and refrain from answering freedom of information requests, thereby clarifying the real picture: public workers assigned by law to protect wildlife allow and carry out cruel and vicious harm to helpless, cooped up animals, making unfounded excuses to their actions in hindsight. And the crocodiles join a long line of animals being shot to death, with the permission of the authorities that are in charge of keeping them safe: the wolves, the crocodiles, the boars, birds and many other animals.
