The Pit-Mendelvotiz Rescue Center is a one of kind center, the only rescue center in Israel that helps that so called "dangerous" dogs such as Pitbulls, Rottweilers and other bully dog breeds. An IDF Veteran, Yuval Mendelovitz is now fighting his own battle to save Israel’s Pitbull's, Mastiffs, and other BSL dogs, declared illegal to breed or import into the country. In June 2004, the Israeli parl
iament voted to ban the import or breeding of specific breeds of dogs, commonly known as “bully breeds,” and placing serious restrictions on those who already owned them. Within two weeks, Yuval said in an interview, the dogs started showing up at his door. “Something amazing happened,” he said, “I had sixteen Pitbull's on my roof that just arrived because people started throwing them out on the street.”
Having already been active in bully breed rescue, Yuval was the only person in the area willing to take them in. Alarmed by the severity of the new regulations, many owners found it easier to simply abandon their dogs to the streets, or to release them to the underground dog fighting market. Shelters were flooded with the dogs, while some dogs were simply let go, as owners preferred giving them up rather than comply with the new law. An animal lover his whole life, with a special fondness for Pitbull's, Yuval, a passionate thirty-one year old, had found his life’s work. One by one the dogs started arriving at the door of an apartment he had recently rented in central Israel, and with just two rooms and a rooftop “we became a pack" Yuval says. Yuval hopes that one day he will be able to set up a proper dog rescue center with an education center that will work to change the way people feel about these dogs in the country. In the meantime, Yuval is committed to being not just their caretaker, but their champion and pack leader, working tirelessly - one dog at a time - to change the way the world feels about these misunderstood breeds. Now Yuval has a rescue center in Northern Israel with over 200 dogs that have been left to fend for themselves and he is the only one who will fight for them.
