Mayor of Hebron Offers About $5 for Every Stray Dog Killed

The mayor of the West Bank Palestinian city of Hebron offered 20 shekels, the equivalent of about $5, for every stray dog killed by a city resident. “Whoever kills a stray dog or delivers to us a stray dog that’s been killed, we are willing to reward him with 20 shekels ($5.6) for each dog delivered to us,” Mayor Tayseer Abu Sneineh said last week during an interview on a local radio station while talking about the problem of the overpopulation of stray dogs. In the wake of the interview, Hebron residents posted photos of themselves on social media torturing and killing stray dogs. Sneineh clarified over the weekend that there is no such bounty program and that he was not serious when he made the cash offer. The Animal and Environment Association in Bethlehem, the only animal shelter in the West Bank, said in a statement that the mayor said he would “study suggested ideas from other institutions and the civil government” about how to deal with the stray dogs. “The mayor should declare the cease of this bloody campaign which resulted in killing many dogs, shooting, hanging, abusing, running over them by cars,” the association said, adding: “What happened today is beyond humanity and ethics, no religion would accept such actions that urge barbaric actions towards innocent animals.”