The illegal hunting of wild animals in Israel is extremely popular and it is estimated that 70,000 animals are killed every year. For the most part, Thai workers and minorities hunt these animals.
In the Western Galilee, most of the animals hunted are porcupines and partridges. Porcupine hunting has become so widespread that it has reached epidemic proportions. For example, in 2013, 250 porcupines were slaughtered and this is only from the information that the Israel Nature and Parks Authority received.
Thai workers hunt mainly using a noose trap. They hang the noose in the aisles between bushes or on the passages under fences. These traps are considered especially cruel because the animal suffocates – a slow death often over many hours.
Minorities use a wide variety of methods that vary with day or night use:
Methods during the Day – A metal or a stone trap is hidden in the woods. In many cases, when the hunter believes he has been spotted, he abandons the trap in the field leaving the porcupine to die a slow and cruel death.
Methods during the Night – There are 3 basic methods:
- Run Over – the hunters drive around in the fields searching for porcupines to run over.
- Use of dogs that have been specially trained to hunt porcupines
- Groups of hunters that wander around on foot on the forest paths at night and use clubs to kill the porcupines.
Reasons for Hunting:
- A porcupine’s flesh is considered a delicacy, especially among the Druze and Bedouin ethnicities. The Bedouin also attribute healing properties to porcupine meat.
- It is free and relatively easy to get – you do not need a gun to kill a porcupine.
- Among the minorities, killing a porcupine is considered heroic.
Reasons for Not Preventing the Hunting of Porcupines:
- Lack of manpower
- Lack of a legal deterrent – many judges do not understand the severity of the situation and the high amount of illegal hunting, the cruelty involved, and the danger of extinction. In many cases the judges work out a deal with the hunters, while others give extremely light sentences (as of 2015 only 3 serial hunters were incarcerated and then for only 5-7 months).
How can you help?
If….
- You see suspicious people walking around the footpaths of a forest (especially if they have clubs in their hands)
- You see a person from an ethnic minority enter a forest with dogs
- You see lights in a forest or in a grove of trees at night
- You see a trap in the fields.
Immediately inform the Israel Nature and Parks Authority:
Eyal – 053-7762036
Amir – 053-6638961
Gil – 050-5559602
Emergency Center – *6911
Written by Miri Bokbout and Gil Ezra, of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority – Western Galilee
