The animal-rights group Let the Animals Live has petitioned the Jerusalem District Court against the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, alleging that its inspectors systematically shoot stray dogs without first exhausting alternatives such as capture, quarantine, veterinary treatment or adoption. The petition says the authority’s procedure for handling stray and feral dogs is unlawful and effectively turns lethal shooting into a first resort rather than a last resort. It was filed by the law firm Har-Zahav, Edelstein, Berman.
The filing follows a series of incidents in recent months. In December, about 20 dogs, including puppies, were reportedly shot near the Zikim military base by nature authority inspectors. Soldiers who witnessed the incident said they knew and fed the dogs and claimed some were not aggressive. The authority said then that the dogs had crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip and posed a danger because of rabies and harm to wildlife.
In its response to the petition, the authority said the war has brought thousands of stray dogs from Gaza into the western Negev, and that dogs have also entered Israel from Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. It said the current rabies outbreak is marked by an unusual rise in infected dogs, the main risk for human exposure. According to veterinary service data, 17 rabid dogs were identified in 2024, 35 in 2025, and by June 15 another 42 positive dogs had been found out of 74 rabies cases in total, the rest being infected wildlife. The authority said this is an alarming record pace and could surpass the 2009 peak of 45 rabid dogs out of 85 total cases.
The authority also said the disease has spread from the northern valleys and Israel’s eastern borders into central cities such as Hod HaSharon, Rosh HaAyin and Modi'in, and that three jackals and a fox were recently found rabid in Judea and Samaria and along the seam zone. Let the Animals Live says Zikim was not exceptional, citing similar incidents in the Neot Hovav area on April 27 and May 5, and a shooting in Khan al-Ahmar last week in which a family dog was badly wounded, left in the field, then later collected and euthanized. The petition says more than 1,300 dogs were shot dead by the authority in 2025 alone, and that the authority has told freedom-of-information requesters it does not capture dogs. The authority rejects that claim, saying it also carries out sanitation and public education and does not shoot dogs that appear owned, domesticated, and friendly to humans.
