Without getting too bogged down by the details, because they are complicated and I am not an expert in them and they do not really matter for this post, residents of the new areas of Bet Shemesh have been suffering for some time now with wild dogs roaming the neighborhoods. They generally live in the mountains nearby but at night, and even sometimes by day, they come into the neighborhoods, probably looking for food, and have been terrorizing the local residents. People have been frightened, but even worse is that people, including kids, have actually been attacked and bitten.

City Hall called in the services of the Ministry of Agriculture and the chief of veterinary services and they decided they could not shoot the dogs but had to work on capturing them. After a period of working to this end, they basically have had absolutely no success in this. After another attack and biting this week, finally they got special approval with orders of "shoot to kill".

This information quickly went public and people around the country went berserk over the orders to kill dogs. In online posts they expressed outrage at the killing of dogs, including images of sad and lovable looking dogs, as if house pets are being killed (meanwhile local residents who have actually seen the dogs and support the drastic measure have been posting pictures of actual vicious dogs and attacks and someone from Tzur Hadassa even posted pictures of a deer attacked and killed by these dogs). It even came to the point of some people calling to kill city employees instead, and others blaming the religious or the haredim for this situation.

The orders got blocked by one local politician, and then the mayor renewed the orders and overrode his deputy mayor. Courts and court orders have been involved and people have been working to bus in masses of people from around the country in the event the orders go through to kill the dogs.

So far nothing beyond talk has actually happened.

The issue took a major turn this morning. The issue has gone as high as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and he has related to it. Netanyahu posted a letter from his wife, Sara Netanyahu, on his official Facebook page. Sara Netanyahu writes a simple letter to Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel asking him to do everything in his power to prevent the shooting of dogs planned for Bet Shemesh. She says she is convinced that with effort involving sensitivity and professionalism alternative methods can surely be found to protect the health of the public.



I do not know what else Netanyahu has done about this issue. He very well could have called Uri Ariel, a minister in his government, and given him orders or pressed on him his position on the matter. He could have put out his own public statement on the matter. But he did not. PM Netanyahu used his official Facebook page to publicize a statement and request from his wife.

I am not sure what this means. He himself does not want to get involved - the matter is too minor for his involvement?  He supports his wife's position, but not officially? I am not sure, but his publication of the statement seems a bit cowardly to me.

Either way, it is clear that Sara Netanyahu, her husband, and most of the other people expressing anger over this do not really know the severity of the matter and what types of digs are involved in this. They mostly seem to think these are house pets that were let go and are simply hungry, but can be dealt with. They are wrong. These are wild dogs, according to the veterinarian they carry diseases, they are vicious, they have no fear of humans and they are actually dangerous and are in attack mode when they approach the residential areas of Bet Shemesh.