Nature authority warns of possible upswing in illegal animal poisonings
Over past five years, February has seen increase in use of poisonous bait as farmers return to agricultural activity and seek to protect crops and livestock from attack
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
January saw nine incidents of fatal poisonings of wild and domestic animals, with 12 jackals, five foxes, a wild boar, a winter hare, a domestic cat and a dog among the victims, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority reported Monday.
The authority said it was worried that these figures would increase in February, as farmers return to agricultural activity as winter ebbs and plant deciduous crops, and cows bear calves.
Over the past five years, the authority has dealt with some 300 cases of poisonings in northern Israel, with some 10% taking place in Februarys.
It is combining increased inspections with field tours that use sniffer dogs to detect toxic bait, according to a statement.
Farmers intent on poisoning wild animals that might damage their crops, irrigation systems or herds have resorted to hiding bait made of pesticides in materials such as meat or fruit scraps, it said.
Reminding the public that harming wildlife is prohibited by law, as is using pesticides for a purpose not described on the label, the authority warned that pesticides are toxic to humans as well as animals. It urged people not to pick up bait with their bare hands or allow their dogs to approach it.
Not only does poisoning cause terrible suffering to animals, the authority said, pesticide bait can also harm reptiles crawling over it, while contact with contaminated dust can reach the eyes, nose and mouth and even be absorbed into the skin.
The authority quoted one person who reported a poisoning incident on Friday. The woman said she went for a walk with her dog in an orchard area near Moshav Amirim. “After a few hundred meters, she disappeared,” the woman recalled. “I called her, and after a while, she returned, and I realized that she had eaten something. When we got home, she started really shaking, had difficulty walking, and foamed at the mouth. Within minutes, I was on the way to the vet, who identified it as a poisoning. The dog received treatment that saved her… I heard that similar incidents have already taken place with domestic and wild animals, affected by poison spread to stop jackals and wolves.”
In a separate incident on Friday, authority rangers in southern Israel found a griffon vulture suspected to have died from poisoning near Hazeva, south of the Dead Sea. Griffon vultures often eat from poisoned carcasses left out by sheep and goat farmers to kill jackals, wolves, foxes and feral dogs.
Born in 2021, this specimen was first tagged in September 2021 in Sde Boker and had never left the area of the Negev Mountains and the Dana Biosphere Reserve in Jordan.
Earlier this month, hundreds of dead black kites were found near Moshav Patish in the Negev desert, apparently having drunk irrigation water contaminated with the pesticide Nemacur.
The authority has campaigned for years to stop people dumping food waste that attracts wild animals, and to reduce poisonous pesticide and fertilizer use, regulate their ownership, and pass a law enabling authorities to arrest people suspected of poisoning wildlife. At present, anyone can buy such poison, and suspects can only be charged if they are caught red-handed.
