The Prime Minister’s “best friend” has been quarantined for biting two people at a family Hanukkah party Thursday night.
The dog, named Kaiya, took a small chunk out of a Likud party Knesset Member and the husband of Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, who was warned by her too late that the canine is not entirely friendly.
Prime Minister Netanyahu brought the stray dog home in July. She previously has been petted by visitors, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
But Kaiya may have a dislike for her owner’s Likud party. She bit Sharren Haskel, a Canadian-born Likud MK who also is a veterinary nurse.
Foreign Minister Hotovely’s husband Or Alon was next in line and did not get out of the way in time when his wife said, “Get away from her! She bites!” Yediot Acharonot reported that the dog also bit the Prime Minister shortly after he brought the dog home last summer, the first indication of Kaiya’s affection for the Likud party.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has written on Facebook, “How much light Kaiya brought into our home. If you want a canine, find an adult dog to rescue. You won’t regret it!”
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s opponents, who feel they have suffered multiple bites from him, undoubtedly would prefer that he be quarantined instead of the dog.
Kaiya is in the dog house, so to speak, for another eight days before she can go home, assuming she does not have rabies.
Now that Prime Minister Netanyahu has discovered what happens to a dog after he or she bites someone, woven if the dog has been vaccinated, he wants to change the law.
He posted on Facebook Friday:
As a result of the incident, I was exposed to the issue of quarantining dogs and discovered faults flaws incompatible with logic and compassion. I will ask the proper officials in the Health and Agriculture ministries and organizations to defend animals to draft changes to improve the current laws.
Opposition Knesset Member Itzik Shmuli, who heads the Lobby for the Protection of Animals, said that Prime Minister Netanyahu is right and that there is no reason for dogs to automatically be quarantines after biting people.
Netanyahu concluded his Facebook post by writing:
Happy Hanukkah and Shabbat Shalom to all of us – to those who walk on two legs and to those who walk on four.