Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI) was established in 1984, when animal advocacy in Israel barely existed.
Legislators had not yet given thought to the idea of an Animal Protection Law, professional veterinary care was sorely lacking, and the two small animal shelters in the country had scant resources to promote spaying and neutering to prevent cat and dog overpopulation. Officials at both the national and local levels considered it their responsibility to undertake campaigns to mass poison cats and dogs using slow-acting and painful poisons such as strychnine and alpha chlorolose, and to support animal-based industries, from animal agriculture to experimentation on animals.
In the face of this bleak reality, a desire to raise consciousness in teachers, veterinarians, and government officials as well as in the general public about the need to help animals, and our responsibility to do so, was then and has continued to be the motivation for CHAI’s efforts and projects over the last two decades.
Today, the public is far more empathetic to the tragic sights around them, but suffering street animals, overworked donkeys and horses, and extremely confined farm animals are all too common. A shocking number of mice, rats, rabbits, pigs, cats, dogs, and primates are the subjects of testing in commercial, educational, and military institutions.
The mobile spay/neuter clinic of Hakol Chai, the Israeli sister charity of CHAI, has traveled from one end of the country to the other, working to prevent animal overpopulation and to educate the public in responsible animal care. During the evacuation of settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, the clinic’s professional veterinary staff and volunteers played a major role in rescuing abandoned animals and reuniting them with their guardians, or finding new homes for them.
We exposed the urgent need to provide protection for horses, especially those used as work animals, and rescued abused horses. To prevent such abuse in the future, through our attorneys, we urged Mayors throughout the country to enact regulations requiring annual licensing and inspections of horses, and to enforce existing legislation. We are also fighting to prevent the establishment of an ambitious and cruel horse-racing industry.
In appreciation of the fact that education is the key to positive change, we are preparing a new, extensive humane education curriculum for secular and religious schools.
We welcome your support, both financial and in other ways, which makes everything we do for animals possible.