Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI) 
Contact:  chai_us@cox.net

CHAI began campaigning for an end to horse-drawn carts in Israel after repeatedly exposing abuse of these animals and rescuing and rehabilitating some of the worst cases. We have pressed municipal veterinarians and the police to remove abused horses from their abusers, written to Mayors of cities around the country, urging them to enact regulations to protect these animals and to enforce any existing regulations, and appealed to the Transportation Ministry to ban the practice. At the request of CHAI's sister charity in Israel, Hakol Chai (everything lives), the Tel Aviv City Council at last held a hearing to consider a list of proposed reforms we submitted to them, but the Mayor continues to decline to take action, despite the recommendation of his own municipal veterinarian.

Cart horses in Israel haul heavy carts filled with furniture, rocks from construction sites, watermelons and other produce for the market. They are malnourished, beaten, provided with no veterinary care, and abandoned at the end of the summer to die. Municipal authorities have done little to nothing to enforce regulations or to remove abused animals from their abusers.