מקבץ פוסטים שפורסמו במקור ב-Animal Rights in Israel (דף פייסבוק, כיום For Anonymous Animals, בבעלות עמותת אנונימוס).
28.9.2013
Israeli poultry industry is shrinking!
The poultry industry used to be a safely expanding business in Israel. It is no longer so. Recent statistics by the Israeli Poultry Council indicate an overall decline. These news are especially important in a country where consumption of bird flesh per capita is among the world's highest.
General data show a steady increase of the Israeli poultry meat industry, at least since the 1990s. Detailed data since 2009 show some yearly fluctuation. Yet, in general, the "broiler" industry has been growing, and a decrease of 2.1% in 2012 sales could still be considered as a local variation within a familiar range.
January-May 2013 data show a new tendency: ALL RECORDED FACTORS DROPPED by 13.3-14.4%, compared to the same months last year. This decline is far beyond traditional yearly changes, and it is the first time the entire system seems to shrink: the number of eggs incubated, number of chicks sent to farms, and amount of meat sold.
This decline means that the number of chicks sent to suffer on farms was reduced by 13,593,000 compared to early 2012. The significance of such a high number of lives saved cannot be overrated.
The smaller turkey industry has been less stable in general and it started to shrink earlier. Yet here, too, the beginning of 2013 shows a much more dramatic decline: around 21% decline in all three factors throughout January-May, compared to the same period in 2012. This is a reduction of 1,073,000 in chicks sold to farms.
The reason for the change is yet unclear, and caution is necessary in interpreting the data. Artificially cheap chicken meat is notoriously used to attract supermarket costumers, and changing price policies could effect the industry for a while. It should be remembered, however, that the Israeli human population is growing fast (1.8% growth over the last year) and so consumption per capita has actually declined more dramatically than the above data reveal.
Over the last two years or so, Israel saw an unprecedented expansion of veganism, as well as vegetarianism and flexitarianism. It would be reasonable to guess that this rising culture is putting its mark on the very size of the death industries.
10.10.2013
8,200 chickens died due to an intentional power cut off
The entire population in a "broiler" shed died after the Israel Electric Corporation had cut off the power to the shed on a hot day. The emergency generator did not work, and without forced ventilation the birds perished quickly. The Corporation claims that the power cut lasted for two hours only. No agricultural worker was on site, as the manager of the facility "looks after" the chickens by a daily SMS sent from the automatic life-supporting system. When no daily SMS was received, the manager sent a worker to check on the birds. This was too late.
The disaster, exposed today on the newspaper Maariv, happened on 12 September. Cutting off the power was a measure against the owner of the site, located in moshav Alma in the Galilee. The owner failed to pay electricity bills for several months. The manager of the "broiler" shed claims that no warning was given before shutting down the power, while the Corporation claims that many warnings were sent to the owner of the site, who is a different person, and in any case the birds were already dead before the cut off.
Who is more responsible for the disaster: the manager, the owner, or the power company? One thing is certain: when an entire population perishes in agony due to bureaucratic complications, death cannot be considered as an accident. It is rather a symptom of an inherently flawed agricultural system, where the animals lost all means to save themselves, and therefore any occasional mishap is likely to end up with a disaster.
Source (in Hebrew)
17.10.2013
Frochi, a chicken rescued from the meat industry
This year in Israel, attempts to rescue chicks from the meat industry have been more frequent than ever before. Thanks to Facebook, these attempts are heavily documented, and the results are accessible. The most comprehensive among these documentations is Frochi – The Official Page, a Facebook page that presents the story of one rescued chicken.
Frochi was dumped alive on 16 July in a garbage container at Nordiya hatchery, like numerous other day-old chicks who don't pass the selection in this hatchery. Instead of dying slowly of dehydration – the certain fate of such chicks in the summertime – she was rescued by animal rights activists, along with 23 other chicks.
Only twelve of the chicks survived, and these were adopted – except for Frochi, who needed veterinary treatment. Since then, she shares a Tel-Aviv apartment with two women and two dogs. At three months old, she is already very heavy due to extremely harmful artificial selection for overgrowth, which is the foundation of the "broiler" industry. Nevertheless, Frochi is active and seems happy in her urban dwelling, getting along well with her mammal companions.
The author of Frochi – The Official Page describes Frochi with much empathy as a joyful bird, full of appetite of all kinds (not only for food), personal preferences, habits and curiosity. Although a Hebrew page, the dozens of photos and videos make it interesting for non-Hebrew speakers as well. This documentation project reveals an avian character no less interesting, versatile and emotional than animals we are more used to cherish as "pets".
The destructive artificial selection has made rescue stories of "broiler" chickens all too short and painful. Yet, Frochi's story proves that such lives are certainly worth living, and these birds deserve respect just like animals of more vigorous breeds. This story also demonstrates that rescuing chickens does not require a large yard, which is uncommon in Israel: Frochi thrives in an ordinary apartment with access to a small, urban yard.
We wish Frochi and her caretakers many, many more days of happiness together.
29.10.2013
Newcastle disease in Israel
A 9 October letter released by Israel's Veterinary Services to poultry farmers reveals that 20 agricultural settlements around the country would be considered at risk for the disease until mid December.
The recent outbreaks are apparently behind us. Overall, it was a relatively quiet year in terms of Newcastle disease. The Veterinary Services report to the OIE concludes that 5,578 birds died of the disease, and 135,640 more were killed on farms in an attempt to stop the outbreak. As high as these numbers may be, they are considered low. In Israel, the preferred method of killing birds in such cases is suffocating them in a flood of foam.
Since the disease is not significantly dangerous to humans, such bird mortality never hits the news. Even animal rights activists hardly know of this so very common viral threat to birds. The symptoms, however, are gruesome. According to the USDA, "an infected bird may show the following signs: sneezing, gasping for air, nasal discharge, coughing; greenish, watery diarrhea; depression, muscular tremors, drooping wings, twisting of head and neck, circling, complete paralysis; partial to complete drop in egg production; production of thin-shelled eggs; swelling of the tissues around the eyes and in the neck; sudden death; and increased deaths in a flock."
The severity of the disease depends on the virus strain; sometimes symptoms are mild, and sometimes the entire flock perishes. Birds could be vaccinated against the disease, but once it attacks a flock, no medical treatment is available. The entire facility is "depopulated" immediately, in hope to prevent further transmission of the virus.
One thing is certain: Newcastle disease, as it is now known, is characteristic to poultry factory farms, where birds are confined very crowdedly, in huge numbers. Once the virus enters such a hospitable environment, it spreads like fire.
8.11.2013
Israeli TV reveals that eggs contain forbidden chemicals
A ten minute item on Channel 2 presented yesterday the widespread use of forbidden chemicals in the Israeli egg industry. The report ignores the suffering the hens endure due to these practices, but it may still have some deterring effect on egg consumers.
Reporter Chaim Rivlin stresses that only two medications are allowed for "laying hens." Nevertheless, the Ministry of Agriculture have long been tracing forbidden chemicals given to hens by veterinarians. A Channel 2 crew report that egg facilities in the Galilee are so dirty that it is difficult to see through the netted fence. The droppings accumulate so high under the cages, that they reach the cage floor and the eggs laid on it.
The Channel 2 undercover reporter recorded a conversation with an agent of the pharmaceutical company Pure, a veterinarian who offered forbidden antibiotics. The agent provided the medication (amoxicilin) without prescription, recommended to use a higher dosage than advised on the label, and offered to put another chemical in the hens' drinking water. This chemical, enilconazole, is not even a medication, but rather a disinfection material. Enilconazole may cause cancer, and any use beyond the disinfection of unpopulated facilities is strictly forbidden. Another veterinarian offered the reporter to put enilconazole in the drinking water and to spray it on the birds.
The report goes further and reminds viewers that recently the Ministry found traces of clopidol in 17.6% of the eggs examined. This antibiotic medication may enter the industry through the feed factory. Forbidden chemicals may also be present in the flesh of "broiler chickens", thanks to a very permissive medication use policy. Residues also enter the body of cows and their milk, since every year Israeli farmers feed 170,000 tons of chicken manure to cows and calves.
The Ministry of Agriculture claims that improved procedures are to be released soon.
See the Channel 2 report (in Hebrew)
21.11.2013
Israel still imports foie gras
Israel used to be the world's third largest "producer" of foie gras (fatty liver), after France and Hungary. With about 800,000 goose and duck victims, the combined weight of their livers reached about 500 tonnes a year. Following an Anonymous for Animal Rights campaign, a Supreme Court ruling and a Government decision brought the force-feeding to an end by mid-2006.
Nevertheless, Israel still imports fatty liver from Hungary. The imported quantity is but a fraction of the quantity "produced" prior to the ban, yet it still represents many suffering birds. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, imports peaked in 2011, reaching 22,550 kg, about double the amount imported in 2007. The peak number could indicate about 30,000 victims, tortured in Hungary by methods which are illegal in Israel.
A bill to ban the import and sale of foie gras was introduced at the Knesset several years ago, and once again on 22 April, 2013. The new bill gained instant, cross-party support, yet it was blocked (at least for the time being) by the Minister of Agriculture, Yair Shamir, and the Minister of Internal Security, Yitzhak Aharonovich.
24.11.2013
Chickens as pets on Israeli mainstream media
Israel's most widespread daily newspaper, Israel HaYom, published a 4-page article about raising chickens as pets (22 November). Journalist Smadar Brandeis interviewed seven people who keep chickens, mostly hens rescued from eggs farms. Although in several cases the initial motivation for keeping the hens was exploiting them for eggs, rescuing ex-battery cage hens became a central motivation as the interviewees learned to know the birds.
Anonymous for Animal Rights' activist, Gaya Goldberg, adopted two exhausted ex-battery hens. One of them could not even stand well and the other one was limping as a result of excessive laying. Thanks to Gaya's treatment, they both recovered. She says that "they are sweet, assertive, love intimacy and warmth, open to caresses, independent and they have their own personality and will. They are also very social, with interesting attachments among them."
Kindergarten owner, Bar Sharon, who keeps 11 hens, was astonished to learn how strong friendships between hens can be. After one of her hens was killed by a predator, her hen friend "stopped eating and drinking, stood all day long with her head shriveled, and eventually died of sorrow."
Some of the people interviewed, such as radio personality, Shai Goldstein, share with their family the pleasure of keeping hens. Shai says that when they adopted a hen, "on her first night she jumped over the fence and climbed on a tall tree. Since then, every night she goes to sleep on the same branch and wakes up with me early in the morning. She has a variety of cackles that my wife learned to identify – a special cackle for food, for drink, for laying an egg. She also gets along very well with the dog and even rushes to be next to her any time she is frightened by a loud noise, so that the dog will protect her."
The article also go through some egg and meat industries' facts, including some criticism of commercial free-range farms. Yet, overall the article is pleasant to read, marking a new, appealing way to speak for chickens on the Israeli media.
29.11.2013
Charges filed against Nordia Hatchery for dumping live chicks in trash containers
The Ministry of Agriculture filed charges against Nordia Hatchery, months after animal rights activists documented there a routine of dumping live chicks, hatched and unhatched, in a trash container. Activists of several organizations visited the hatchery a few times earlier this year, and in mid-June a Ynet journalist joined a chick rescue mission. Following the Ynet exposé, the Knesset Committee on Education, Culture, and Sports held a meeting on this subject. Let the Animals Live submitted a formal complaint against the hatchery, and the Ministry claims now that the hatchery stopped the dumping of live chicks.
The charges against the hatchery refer to 3 episodes documented by the activists. As the indictment claims, the production manager at the hatchery ordered his employees to dump dozens of chicks that have been rejected for marketing and hundreds of eggs that contain unhatched embryos to the trash container. The eggs kept on hatching inside the container, and these chicks, along with the rejected ones, suffered injuries and suffocation under other chicks, eggs and garbage dumped over them. The suffering lasted for hours, until the chicks died of suffocation.
Another June episode described in the indictment is an attempt of the production manager to exterminate chicks by putting dozens of them inside a nylon bag and pouring C02 into the bag. The manager did not validate the concentration of the gas and the effectiveness of his killing action, and just threw the bag to the garbage. The activists found that many of the chicks were still alive inside the bag, pressed strongly at each other and hardly breathing.
There is some consolation in the Ministry of Agriculture's legal action against the hatchery, yet, as in other animal abuse cases, the action followed a high-profiled investigation by animal rights activists, with no independent enforcement action. In fact, the Ministry has delayed for many years a legislation process regarding hatcheries. Instead of full regulations, in 2007 it started sending hatcheries some instructions, apparently without enforcing them. Random investigations at Ramit Hatchery by a HaMoshavot Magazine journalist and by Anonymous for Animal Rights during 2011-2012 revealed a systematic dumping of live chicks in containers. Both investigations led the Ministry to file charges against Ramit, and the first case was resolved with a 60,000 shekels (17,000 US$) fine.
It should be remembered that legal action against hatcheries will result, at best, in more effective killing methods, not in saving the chicks. For example, grinding them alive.
29.11.2013
Cadmium in chicken and turkey liver
A few days ago, Channel 2 aired an investigation into cadmium residues in chicken and turkey liver. Cadmium is a carcinogen that tends to accumulate in the liver and kidneys. This heavy metal contaminates poultry feed unintentionally but routinely.
Israeli agriculture and health authorities are well aware of cadmium residues in poultry livers. In 2011, Prof. Efrayim Cohen, the chairman of a Committee on Chemical Residues in Livestock (a Committee established by the Ministry of Agriculture) wrote to the Ministry of Health that 13% of the chicken liver samples collected during 2010 demonstrated unacceptable levels of cadmium. Prof. Cohen concluded his letter with a clear recommendation: "we should consider an action to educate the public in this country to reduce the consumption of poultry liver… and the sooner the better." Despite this recommendation, no liver/cadmium warning was issued by any authority.
Channel 2 sent a random sample of 4 chicken livers and 6 turkey livers from around the country to a laboratory analysis. The results: cadmium residues were found in 9 of the 10 livers. In one of them, cadmium level was above the maximum permissible limit.
Channel 2 investigator, Haim Rivlin, stresses that no authority monitors cadmium residues in animals. The Ministry of Agriculture examines some samples, but the results are obtained much too late for direct practical implications.
Back in 2002, the State Ombudsman wrote that residue levels in animal livers are much above the maximum permitted, and hence the Veterinary Services and the Ministry of Health should "consider the required measures." And so they did, in their awkward way: they doubled the maximal level permitted, and so it is currently twice the level of cadmium permitted in Europe.
The Channel 2 report totally ignores the birds as living, suffering beings. Nevertheless, it provided bird-eaters with yet another reason to drop the habit.
6.12.2013
One million dead on arrival: the fate of transported chickens
In many respects, chickens in the meat industry endure the worst systematic abuse on earth. A 2012 report of the Israeli Veterinary Services exposes some of the abuse. According to the report, 183,494,918 chickens were slaughtered in Israel during 2012. There is a yearly rise in absolute numbers (other sources indicate that 2013 is the first year of decline, at least until September; we will keep you informed when final statistics is released).
Of the over 183 million chickens the Veterinary Services recorded in 34 slaughterhouses all over Israel, 2.5% were rejected due to veterinary considerations. This includes 0.6% that were already dead at the slaughterhouse: 1,104,821 birds who died somewhere between the farm and the inspection point. This staggering number is, in fact, an improvement compared to previous years.
What other problems did the veterinarians notice at the slaughterhouses? 1,050,692 birds were rejected as a result of direct violence or neglect during the birds' last hours or minutes. This includes "infection, injury, degeneration and dismemberment" in 0.4% of the chickens, and "bad bleeding" (i.e., lacking slaughter) in 0.2% of the chickens.
2,384,325 chickens were rejected due to veterinary considerations. This includes (a partial list): "inflammatory process including colibacillosis" (the commonest infectious disease of farmed poultry) (0.5%), "tumors" (0.3%), and "atrophy gauntness" (0.2%).
Notably, this horrifying statistics sums-up official reports, so the actual situation is probably even worse. As undercover investigators and whistle-blowers often reveal, official veterinarians tend to overlook much of the slaughterhouse horrors.
15.12.2013
Ascites: the winter chicken killer
During these exceptionally cold days in Israel, you may wonder how farmed animals cope with the cold. The more intensive farms are heated, but the efficiency of heating is limited, and animals on these farms encounter other problems as well.
Chickens of the meat industry are prone to a peculiar illness, which is especially common in the winter: ascites. Ascites is fluid accumulation in abdominal cavity, yet the cause of death is heart failure and lack of oxygen to the tissues. Characteristic symptoms are:
– Poor bird development;
– Dilated abdomen ("waterbelly");
– Dyspnoea (panting, accompanied with gurgling sounds, even in the absence of apparent heat stress);
– Possible cyanosis (a blue discolouration of the skin, especially around the comb and wattles and muscle tissue).
Meat industry breeds are prone to ascites, probably due to the bird's exceedingly fast growth rate and high oxygen demand. The growth rate and muscle mass in these birds have been greatly increased by artificial selection, while the size of the bird's heart and lungs have not kept pace. These factors, along with overfeeding during artificially prolonged light periods, result in ascites. Good ventilation is an immediate preventive measure, yet it is hard to achieve in the winter. Slowing the growth rate of birds and avoiding "broiler" farming during the cold months are also mentioned as solutions, but consumers demand cheap chicken meat all year round.
Ascites is very common. A 1997 World Broiler Ascites Survey revealed that ascites affected on average 4.7% of all live "broiler" chickens worldwide. In Israel, the annual death count reached four million birds at that period. According to the 2012 report of the Veterinary Services, ascites "events" were recorded in 314 flocks (including 297 flocks of meat breeds). The number of deaths or the death rate are not mentioned, however. Notably, in recent years the prevalence of ascites in Israel is declining.
18.12.2018
Tens of thousands of chickens died in the storm
The 10-14 December storm was one of the worst ever recorded in Israel: snow up to 90 cm deep on the Judean and Samarian peaks and 30-60 cm in the Galilee, 200-300 mm of rain over many locations, and temperatures around zero (0°C, 32°F) including a -13.6°C record in Merom Golan.
During the storm, public attention was focused on closed roads, isolated communities and immense power cuts. Now some of the deeper damage is revealed, when farmers start to complain about economic loss. Some poultry sheds were flooded, and roofs collapsed under the snow in some other sheds. The scale of deaths is yet unknown, except for some random reports:
AgriSupportOnline reports that sheds collapsed in moshav Meron in the Galilee and killed 20,000 birds. A Ynet report mentions a collapsed poultry shed in the nearby moshav Dovev, where the farmer "tries to save the hens."
In the settlement Itamar (near Nablus) some poultry sheds containing thousands of birds fell apart completely. A farmer interviewed for a YouTube private video made after the storm says that hundreds of chickens died when the roof collapsed, and more chickens are still dying due to the lack of feed.
A Maariv 15 December report reveals that due to the power cut in many mountainous agricultural communities, the chickens had nothing to eat for 3 days (many communities remained without electricity for at least another day). The Poultry Association claims that the hens "are not in danger of death and they manage to keep their body heat," but we question the reliability of this claim.
The mass chicken death is presented as "a natural disaster". Yet, in fact, there is nothing natural about millions of south Asian birds crammed in loose sheds in a distant, colder country. The last storm may be exceptional, yet it is inherent to the local climate, and roofs collapsed under the snow due to poor, cheap design — not because of nature. Apparently, there is also nothing natural about birds starving in cages because of electricity problems. The disaster is clearly artificial, and poultry consumers and farmers are responsible for it.
27.12.2013
Newcastle outbreak in Israel: 40,000 birds died
On 24 December, Israel's Veterinary Services reported of a new Newcastle disease outbreak in moshav Qelahim in the Negev. In an "Immediate notification report" to the World Organisation for Animal Health, the VS report of 4,000 cases of the disease and 1,200 deaths. 38,800 birds were killed as a prevention measure.
At present, eleven agricultural settlements around Qelahim are considered at risk for the disease until 25 March 2014. The new outbreak raises the 2013 Newcastle death toll to over 180,000 birds, most of them killed on farms in an attempt to stop the outbreak. In Israel, the preferred method of killing birds in such cases is suffocating them in a flood of foam.
Since the disease is not significantly dangerous to humans, such bird mortality never hits the news. Even animal rights activists hardly know of this so very common viral threat to birds. The symptoms, however, are gruesome. According to the USDA, "an infected bird may show the following signs: sneezing, gasping for air, nasal discharge, coughing; greenish, watery diarrhea; depression, muscular tremors, drooping wings, twisting of head and neck, circling, complete paralysis; partial to complete drop in egg production; production of thin-shelled eggs; swelling of the tissues around the eyes and in the neck; sudden death; and increased deaths in a flock."
The severity of the disease depends on the virus strain; sometimes symptoms are mild, and sometimes the entire flock perishes. Birds could be vaccinated against the disease, but once it attacks a flock, no medical treatment is available. The entire facility is "depopulated" immediately, in hope to prevent further transmission of the virus.
One thing is certain: Newcastle disease, as it is now known, is characteristic to poultry factory farms, where birds are confined very crowdedly, in huge numbers. Once the virus enters such a hospitable environment, it spreads like fire.
8.1.2014
Industrial chick killing exposed on Israeli TV
Last evening, Israel's major investigative reporting TV show, Kolbotek, presented an over 20 minutes long report on chick killing practices at Israeli hatcheries. An undercover investigator carrying a hidden camera worked at Schreiber hatcheries of birds destined for both meat and egg farms. The exposé is available on YouTube with no translation, but the images speak for themselves.
Some of the facts revealed on the show:
About 10 million day-old chicks are killed in Israel yearly – over 4 million in the egg industry, and the rest are meat industry chicks.
At a large meat-type birds hatchery, all the chicks are thrown several times during selection, sometimes from a height of over 70 cm.
Weak, "defected" chicks are thrown into a box on top of each other, where they are left for hours. When a worker finally carries them for extermination, many are already dying. Some of them are half-crushed and practically glued to the bottom of the box. The worker tears them out forcefully.
The grinding machine used for killing chicks at that hatchery is a container with a rotating screw-like device inside. It is supposed to kill the chicks almost instantly, but in practice wounded chicks are routinely ejected out of the rotating device. Overloading the machine makes such incidents common, while even a handful of chicks is beyond the capacity of the machine.
A box with live chicks was left outside, and cats assembled to prey on them.
Healthy chicks are left at this hatchery without food and water for up to 3 days (beyond the 48 hours legal limitation).
At another hatchery, for egg industry birds, male chicks are piled up in great numbers and thrown several times before sent to the grinding machine. A very steep conveyor belt forces the chicks to fall on top of each other.
12 years ago, the Ministry of Agriculture drafted regulations for chick killing methods, but all the Ministers of Agriculture since then failed to sign the regulations. Furthermore, the Ministry fails to enforce the existing law.
The exposé on Kolbotek was produced in collaboration with Let the Animals Live, and one of this show's creators is Anonymous for Animal Rights' activist, Ronen Bar. Over the years, Kolbotek exposed several systematic animal abuses in agriculture. Yet, in the past addressing animal issues was rather rare, while the current report was aired soon after the last major exposé, of Soglowek slaughterhouse (29 October 2013). This is another indication of unprecedented interest of the Israeli public in animal rights. This time, as before, Kolbotek is calling for better regulation and enforcement, while in fact the show exposes cruelties that cannot be eradicated unless the entire industry is closed down.
9.1.2014
Chick killing – the day after the exposé
On Tuesday evening, Israel's major investigative reporting TV show, Kolbotek, aired an undercover investigation at large hatcheries. Next morning, several newspapers published articles on the exposé. At the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) MK Rabbi Dov Lipman described the footage exposed on the show, and elaborated on the urgent need to remove the authority on animal welfare from the Ministry of Agriculture. MK Lipman also addressed consumers:
"what I want to do is enlighten the public about the real, hidden cost of the schnitzel and the egg. […] I refer to the cost of suffering, the cost of life, the fact that for every egg or poultry that we eat, day-old living chicks have been destroyed. […] There are many alternatives, plant-based, that are more wholesome and environment-friendly. I wish also to remind us all that the right to choose and consume is ours. Unlike animals on industrial farms who do not choose what would their day be like and what would they eat, we, thank god, are permitted to choose."
Let The Animals Live, the NGO that sent the undercover investigator to the hatcheries, released a testimony by the investigator:
"For several weeks I worked at Schreiber Hatchery in Hod HaSharon. During that time, way over a million chicks passed next to me and thousands were grinded alive before my eyes. They were ejected at me out of a grinding machine which is considered the most "advanced" and "humane" item on the market.
"Even today, two months after I stopped working at hatcheries, I'm left with graphic images in my mind, weird dreams and inescapable thoughts. Thoughts about all the chicks who stood alone on the machine a moment before they slipped onto the knives, with their blinking, black eyes, and how they all seemed lonely despite being among tens of thousands, and the chicks I didn't save, and how they were treated as objects."
The Minister of Agriculture, Yair Shamir, also responded to the show. Less than a year in office and not a farmer himself, he proves that adopting an anti-animal attitude is inherent to that Ministry: "I strongly admonish the cynical use of the fate of animals in the food industry – a use which is nothing but emotional manipulation on the general public – manipulation motivated by extraneous considerations."
