• Are you sick and tired of the filth and dog poop in the city parks?

• Have you had it with the Modi'in Municipality doing nothing in order to improve the parks and instead just issuing PR statements to the press?

• Would you agree to your Va'ad Bayit being so neglectful in handling filth in the your stairwell?

• Do you believe that pets also have rights?

• Do you think that you deserve something in return for the high city taxes you pay each month?

Let's cease being indifferent and demand that our elected officials in the city council:

1. Take adequate measures to keep the Modi'in parks & gardens clean:

• Increase supervision and enforcement against dog owners who do not clean after their dogs as well as against other litter bugs

• Effectively clean the city parks and gardens and operate poop scooters if required, as in Tel-Aviv

• Launch a public campaign for keeping the city clean, including emphasis on dog owners responsibility to clean up after their dogs (sign below is from the city of San Francisco)

• Install special trashcans for dog poop in the parks and gardens throughout Modi'in

2. Amend the local city ordinance to reflect the stated city policy:

• The state law passed in 2002 requires a muzzle only for dangerous dogs, and this is the stated policy which is enforced by the Modi'in Municipality as detailed here. However the 1996 Modi'in environmental ordinance contradicts the city policy and it requires a muzzle for every dog. The Modi'in ordinance should be amended in order to properly reflect the current city policy as follows:

  • Section 78 (a): "A person shall not keep a dog in a public area and shall not allow a dog to be kept in a public area, unless the dog is properly tied to a leash held by a person. In public areas where dogs are not allowed, the dog may tied in adjacency in such a way that will not bother passerby, for a period that shall not exceed 30 minutes (not applicable to dangerous dogs).

  • Require city inspectors to make a reasonable effort to locate a dog's owner before they seize a dog and transfer it to a dog pound

• The Modi'in Municipality legal department will verify that city inspectors issue tickets/fines/warnings based on a uniformly applied criteria and not arbitrarily - see instructive example I or instructive example II

3. Encourage residents to train and educate their dogs so that they do not bother others:

• Publish a list of dog breeds who are child friendly and easily trained

• Organize  a dog training course twice a year in Modi'in with a discount for Modi'in residents

• Offer the option for a "dog test" in the Municipality for the dog and its owners in which the dog will be tested on obeying commands and friendliness to humans

• Dogs who successfully pass the test will be entitled to a discount in the annual license fee and will be permitted to be walked leashless by their owners

4. Designate lots and hours during which dogs can run and play leashless:

• Permit dogs to run and play leashless while being supervised by their owners in the Modi'in parks and gardens from 8:30PM to 7:30AM (not applicable to dangerous dogs)

• In addition to the above (not instead), to build/designate a large park in Modi'in as dog friendly, where people and dogs will be permitted to run and play leashless during all hours of the day (see for example list of dog friendly parks in San Diego)

• It is emphasized that dog owners continue to be exclusively responsible for their dogs at all times and they must clean after them and take all required measures so that they do not bother others

The petition received wide support in the intrent forums it was discussed in, and based on this support we proposed these suggestions to mayor Spector. Consequently two meetings were held in mid 2007 between group representatives and a municipality forum that included the city veterinarian, his superior (the head of Shefa branch) and the municipality legal advisor. In the meetings we learned that parks are cleaned from dog poop only once every 13 days. Most of our proposals were rejected out of hand by the above forum. The veterinarian suggested that dog owners can run with their dogs tied to them. Mayor Spector indicated that he would not go against his staff on this issue and thus our efforts to implement change failed.

About a month prior to the elections we wrote all five mayoral candidates and we asked them to detail their policies for dogs and parks, while referring specifically to their position regarding:

• Which elements of the above petition do you commit to implement as part of your policy you are elected as mayor?

• Adopting an innovative DNA program currently implemented as a pilot program in Petach Tikva municipality which uses DNA samples taken from licensed dogs  in order to trace dog owners who do not collect their dog's poop from public areas (see video report in English)

Mayoral candidates Haim Bibas, Amnon Merhav and Yigal Zadock responded and detailed their proposed policies. Mayoral candidates Alex Weinreb and Doron Shuldenfrei refused to answer to our request, stating that they won't cooperate with the group leader Yaki Beja who authors  the blog Modiin-Watch, which offers a critique of the mayoral candidates. Appeals from other group members to Weinreb and Shuldenfry  failed as well. However shortly afterwards Alex Weinreb issued  a press release titled "Weinreb's 7 point plan to improve the quality of lives of our dogs" where he addressed many of the issues we raised.

You can read here the complete answers of the candidates.

Here is a table summarizing the answers of the candidates (we referred to Weinreb's plan as detailed in his press release):

Unfortunately, it turns out that some mayoral candidates promise one thing and practice something entirely different. In Arey Modiin local newspaper of 10/31/08 it was published that Merhav's neighbors complain that Merhav's dog regularly wanders the street with no supervision and poops in the local playground while his owners do not clean up after it.  Merhav claimed in response to the reporter's questions that it was only a one time incident:

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