A vehicle with a trailer was requested to stop at the side of the road as it drove on Route 35 near Kiryat Gat, following a traffic violation which aroused the suspicions of traffic police.
Police officers examining the trailer were shocked to discover 27 sheep inside it, in violation of the law. Supervisors from the Agriculture Ministry's enforcement unit were called to the scene.
The driver, a 35-year-old resident of the southern Bedouin town of Hura, was fined and called for an interrogation. The trailer was confiscated for a period of 30 days.
Superintendent Yair Peretz, who heads the motorcycle command unit in southern Israel, said, "Transporting animals in such a fashion may cause the animals to suffer and it is also a serious traffic crime which may cause a traffic accident, endangering the driver and the others on the road."
In a similar incident last month, police discovered 11 sheep being transported illegally in the trunk of a vehicle.