Proposed Law: Dog Tax

According to a report in Maariv, MKs Moshe Gafni and Uri Maklev (UTJ) have proposed a law that would impose an environmental tax on dog owners. Anyone owning a dog would have to pay 3500nis per year. For each additional dog the owner would have too pay 7000nis per year. 

The law would direct this tax money to being squirreled away into a fund that would be used to deal with street animals.

From what I have heard this proposal is in response to the Disposables Tax. That tax seemingly, or at least was seen to, hurt the Haredi community more than any other, so this tax would hurt the secular and almost not hurt the Haredi community at all. Additionally, it is making a responsive claim regarding the environment that raising dogs also hurts the environment. I have no idea if this is true or not and would like to understand how this is an environmental issue. I also wonder why only dogs and not cats or goldfish or parrots and parakeets, or even tigers if you are like Joe Exotic - or would they all be included in this under the "broad term" of "dog"?

It seems service dogs and guard dogs would be exempted from this tax.

Obviously this law proposal is unlikely to pass in the current government. I just wonder if they will re-propose the law when they eventually return to government or if this is purely a proposal meant to troll the current members of government.

I wonder how they will justify proposing a law to raise a tax (proposing a new tax actually) after spending the past year screaming about taxes being raised and the increasing cost of living...

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