Yaron Lapidot: Israel Against Live Shipments

An estimated 150,000 calves and lambs arrive in Israel from Australia every year after an arduous journey by sea which can last over 35 days, and 51-year-old Yaron Lapidot is there to document their arrival.

“We did a survey a few years ago which showed that over 70% of the public are against this cruel trade and yet, unbelievably, it still continues,” says the co-founder of Israeli not-for-profit organisation Freedom for Animals, a charity that Yaron set up with his wife Yael 11 years ago, after being horrified at seeing trucks transporting baby calves to the slaughter house.

“My wife and I made the decision back in 2014 to dedicate our lives to showing the world what these animals have to ensure, and we are still going.

“It is very hard to witness their suffering, but we are dedicated to showing the horror inherent in live animal shipments, and the connection between the climate crisis and the way in which animals are treated for the food industry.”

Yaron explains that no two days are the same when it comes to photographing and documenting the arrival of live export shipments into various Haifa ports, which travel from as far as Australia, as well as Portugal, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Montenegro and France.

“There is no set timetable when it comes to live shipments and so we can have a ship arrive overnight and another one in the morning, in fact they come in at all times of the day and night,” explains the self-confessed animal advocate who has been a committed vegan for over two decades.

“We could then have ships arriving three days in a row, and then nothing for a week or two.

“My team document the ships to bear witness to the animals, to take photographs and footage of them being offloaded and then trucked to a feedlot or quarantine area, which we mostly post on our social media page in a bid to expose this terrible industry to the world.

“What we see is very distressing and difficult, but I am professional, I’m essentially ‘the man behind the camera’, and my focus is on laying bare the violence inherent in this callous industry, and the cruelty we force animals to ensure, essentially for the food on our plates.”

Yaron says the focus for Freedom for Animals is on continuing to build public pressure and sentiment to end the live export trade into Israel, something which many political parties have promised over the years, but with no real action ever taken to date.

“It’s been 11 long years since we started documenting the plight of the animals. We were in disbelief when we first started digging into the cruelty of live export and the enormity of the suffering became apparent. We realised very soon we had something big on our hands that we wanted to expose to the world.

“And our philosophy is that collaborating with other animal welfare organisations across the globe is a much more effective way of helping the animals than simply by working by ourselves, so we’re very pleased to work closely with organisations like Australian-based Stop Live Exports.

“Being an animal advocate is never easy but, without doubt, life is always so much harder for the innocent animals whose pain and suffering we witness day in, day out.  And so, we will continue working hard every day, until our politicians listen to the 70% of our population who want live export ended, once and for all.”