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Animal Welfare in Japan by Elizabeth Oliver, founder, Animal Refuge Kansai Visitors to Tokyo who expect to see street dogs, ubiquitous in much of Asia, may be surprised to see only pampered purebreds. Perhaps because Japan is an island,
street dogs have never been common here although dogs did
once enjoy much greater freedom. Before World War II, dogs were kept
primarily by people affluent enough to have a house and land. They may
have been kept as guard dogs, but were seldom chained and could roam
at will.
Because they were free and were
usually greeted by everyone, they tended to be friendly. Hachiko, for
example, an Akita, used to see his master off at the Shibuya railway
station in Tokyo every morning and go back to the station to greet him
on his return in the evening. One day his master died suddenly, but
Hachiko continued to go to the station every day until he died of old
age. The Japanese were so impressed by his devotion and loyalty that
they erected a statue to him, which still stands outside the Shibuya
station.
A dog like Hachiko could not roam
in Tokyo today. People would be frightened of him, and the hokensho
would quickly dispatch him to the gas chamber.
Dogs all but disappeared from
Japan during the war years, eaten by the starving people. By the time
petkeeping resumed, attitudes had changed. As part of a zealous campaign
to eradicate rabies, chaining became mandatory. Stray dogs were hunted
down and often brutally killed in front of the public. Many Japanese
became dog-phobic.
To this day some people scream
at the sight of a lively dog. Others cross the road to avoid meeting
even a well-behaved dog on a lead. Mothers tell their children, "Be
careful the dog will bite you!" So children learn early
to fear dogs and to assume that all dogs bite. There is some ironic
truth in this, since prolonged chaining increases canine territoriality,
making dogs more likely to bite.
Pet fads
As Japan gained affluence, people
who abandoned cramped apartments to buy their own houses tended to want
the accessories to go with a house. One of these accessories was a dog,
of whatever breed was currently fashionable. First-time house owners
became first-time dog owners, knowing very little about how to keep
a dog. The resulting breeding fads were tragic in consequence.
The husky boom may have been the
worst. Huskies are totally unsuited to a cramped urban environment;
they shed hair, which hygiene-obsessive Japanese hate; they are hard
to train; and the hot, humid Japanese summers are torture to dogs native
to the Arctic. Huskies soon filled the gas chambers, and the countryside
was full of abandoned huskies and their crosses. Subsequent fads developed
around golden retrievers, black Labradors, border collies, and Welsh
corgies.
Japan also became a lucrative
market for exotic pets. At one shop in Osaka, for example, you can buy
almost any animal from a pony to a pig to a civet cat. Even wallabies,
eagles, owls, cockatoos, rare reptiles, and a variety of monkeys are
often in stock. The owner was once prosecuted for selling smuggled baby
orangutans. The police confiscated them and sent them back to Indonesia.
The owner was fined a paltry amount, but continued in business as brazenly
as ever.
When these animals are no longer
fun, or become unmanageable, they are dumped. Crocodiles, red-eared
slider turtles, raccoons, and mongooses introduced to Japan as pets
are now often accused of damaging the environment and attacking indigenous
species. Yet once exotic animals are smuggled into Japan, nothing prevents
them from being sold.
The breeding and pet shop business
are reputedly controlled by gangsters. The Kennel Clubs of both Britain
and Ireland have warned their members against exporting to Japan, but
rural puppy mills often do, and since there is no quarantine for animals
originating from the U.K., British-bred dogs can be flown straight in,
to fill the cramped cages of Japanese puppy mills, where they are bred
as young and as often as possible.
The Japanese retail pet industry
makes a profit by selling about 10-20% of the animals they stock, disposing
of the remainder. Kittens and puppies taken from their mothers at the
age of one month are stressed, frequently fall ill, and often die. If
they die after a customer takes them home, the pet shops will never
return the money but may offer another animal as a replacement. Many
animals are sold with forged pedigrees, giving no indication where the
animal was born.
Some pet shops have cages outside
where people may dump their old dog while purchasing a new puppy. The
old dogs are disposed of as a customer service.
If pet shop animals remain unsold,
their price is dropped as they grow, until finally they fill the cage
and are also disposed of, by methods which include being killed on the
premises, being taken to the gas chambers of the hokensho, or
being sold to laboratories.
No one in charge
No Japanese government office
oversees animal welfare. Pets are under the jurisdiction of the Department
of Health & Hygiene, which collects and disposes of animals in much
the same way as garbage. Dogs are actively hunted, since they may carry
rabies and can bite. The dogcatchers sometimes put out traps, or if
they can corner a dog, will throw a wire noose around the dog's neck
and fling the dog up into a truck with other dogs. These trucks are
seldom air-conditioned, nor are the dogs separated, so many animals
end up badly mauled or dead.
There are also "dog posts" in
some rural areas, where unwanted dogs can be shoved down a chute into
a container below. As the contents of the container cannot be seen from
outside, nobody knows what is inside: possibly old dogs, puppies, cats
or kittens. It is easy to imagine the carnage that results.
Some animals never reach the
hokensho itself but are sold along the way to either breeders or
labs. Over 73,000 dogs and 13,500 cats per year are used in experiments.
Animals who reach the hokensho
seldom leave. Some hokensho now operate Aigo Centers (Love
Animal Centers), where puppies are adopted out, but never adult dogs.
Impounded dogs are kept from 3-5
days, except for dogs who have bitten someone, who are quarantined for
two weeks of observation. At many hokensho the killing system
is so automated that animals go directly from the gas chambers into
the furnace at the press of a button. No one verifies that the animals
are dead.
Gassing is the standard killing
method, but some hokensho still use decompression or electrocution,
and until recently, bludgeoning dogs was common in rural areas. Veterinarians
are employed at the hokensho, but seldom touch the animals, and
certainly never euthanize animals by lethal injection.
Catching animals, killing them,
and disposing of their bodies is typically done by contract workers,
who usually belong to the Burakumin class, equivalent to the "untouchables"
of India. In medieval times, the Burakumin were considered the lowest
of humans, and were called Eta, which literally means "having
four legs." They lived in separate villages, could not marry other Japanese,
and could only work in "unclean" trades such as butchering, plumbing,
removing night soil, leather work, prostitution, and undertaking.
After Japan opened up to outside
trade in 1868, the old class system was abolished, but the descendants
of Burakumin are still discriminated against.
Like U.S. Southerners, who speak
of "house dogs" and "yard dogs," the Japanese differentiate between
lap dogs, usually kept inside, and larger dogs who mostly live outside.
Inside dogs are often pampered. Their hair is tied up in ribbons, and
sometimes dyed, they are fed choice snacks, and they are carried rather
than walked.
The same family may also keep
a guard dog, who is chained to a miserable kennel with no protection
from heat or cold, walked minimally, and given cheap food. Walk along
any street in Japan and you see house after house with chained dogs
or dogs locked in tiny cages. Yet their keepers think they are doing
the right thing, and to be told that this is cruel either shocks or
angers them.
Native Japanese dog breeds, such
as the Shiba-inu, Kishu, Kai-ken, Akita-ken, Ainu-ken and Japanese Spitz,
tend to be known for stoicism and endurance, not surpringly, since they
are chained and basically ignored all their lives. Years of this treatment
have bred into these dogs a dislike of being handled. They cannot relax
when cuddled. They are also more aggressive and territorial than western
breeds, and harder to train.
Since Japan has no shelters, people
wanting to get rid of their pet or who can no longer keep the animal
are faced with a dilemma. It is against their Buddhist beliefs to kill
a living thing, so most would never take their pet to be euthanized
by a veterinarian. Besides, most Japanese vets refuse to euthanize any
animal, even if in pain. If the pet is taken to the hokensho, the
animal will be killed, which is then on the former petkeeper's conscience.
So they abandon the animal, or fall prey to schemers who offer to take
unwanted pets, for a fee, and find them new homes. The schemers may
collect as much as $250 U.S. to accept a cat or dogand may
then turn around and sell the animals to labs, take them to the hokensho,
or just dump them.
Many Japanese believe neutering
is unnatural. Instead, they dump unwanted litters of puppies or kittens
on mountainsides or along river banks, sometimes with food that the
newborn animals cannot eat. The abandoners feel they have returned the
animals to nature. Most die of exposure or dehydration, or are killed
and eaten by crows. Those who survive go feral and breed.
From dogs to cats
The Japanese are primarily "dog
people." Although cats have long been kept on farms to hunt mice, their
appearance as pets is very recent. As cats with long tails were considered
bad luck, especially black cats with long tails, people would cut them
off. Over time the preference for short-tailed cats made cats with naturally
short tails the norm.
Since Japan no longer has many
free-roaming dogs, feral cats have taken over the available habitat.
Many are fed, but few of the feeders have the cats sterilized. Thus
the cats proliferate, to the annoyance of neighbors. Japanese houses
are side by side, sometimes only inches apart, with very small gardensor
none. There is nowhere for a cat to go except into dangerous places.
Some cats fall afoul of the makers
of shamisen, a Japanese musical instrument which is traditionally
stringed with catgut.
In 1973 Japan hastily adopted
the present Animal Protection and Control Law, just before a visit to
Japan by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. But the law was designed to
protect people from animals, not the other way around. It was ineffective,
was unknown to many of the authorities who were supposed to enforce
it, and included no definition of cruelty. The handful of successful
prosecutions in the past 30 years have typically won fines of less than
one would get for stealing a bicycle.
Amendments adopted in December
1999 included higher fines, but little else of much practical use. A
revision is due in 2004. Whether an effective updating can be won depends
on the ability of animal welfare groups to win political influence.
The Japan Animal Welfare Society,
the first humane organization in Japan, was started circa 1946 by the
wife of the then British Ambassador, Lady Gascoigne. It attracted members
and supporters among the affluent foreigners based in Japan, and from
Japanese socialites, including members of the Royal Family. Thus JAWS
has always had strong links to the governmentand has tended
toward restraint in advocacy.
A handful of other animal protection
groups have offices in Tokyo, but none run shelters. JAWS for a time
had a rescue centre in the Hanshin area, but it now is closed.
Currently the most active organization
for animal welfare in Japan is ALIVE, run by Tokyo activist Fusako Nogami.
Other small groups operate on shoestring budgets from the founders'
homes, often concealing their addresses and telephone numbers from fear
that animals will be dumped on them.
Veterinarians in Japan, as everywhere,
focused until recently on agriculture. Small animal practice is a specialty
of recent origin. Even today the veterinary curriculum does not include
discussion of animal welfare.
Due to the high cost of land in
Japan, especially in cities, veterinary clinics are usually small, and
many vets practice alone with the help of their wife, who is typically
a veterinary technician. Because land, buildings, and equipment are
all inordinately costly, veterinary fees are high. Sterilization can
cost from $167 to $416 U.S. Routine vaccinations may cost $50 to $84.
The high prices discourage petkeepers from making frequent veterinary
visits. As with human doctors in Japan, clients rarely question vets
about the types of treatment being given. The lack of a questioning
clientele inhibits veterinary progress.
In recent years the rising profile
of service dogs has helped to improve the image of dogs in general,
but even service dogs have difficulty gaining access to restaurants,
shops, hotels, public buildings, and public transport, where their presence
is now widely accepted in the U.S. and Europe.
Things are slowly changing, but
the transition from viewing pets as possessions and objects to viewing
them as family members has really just barely begun.
[The Animal Refuge Kansai is the
largest nonprofit shelter in Japan, located at 595 Noma Ohara, Nose-Cho,
Toyono-Gun, Osaka-Fu, 563-01 Japan; phone 81-727-37-0712; <arkbark@wombat.or.jp>.]
Editor's note:
The attitudes and conditions
that Elizabeth Oliver describes in Japan today are remarkably similar
to the norms of many major U.S. and European cities during the mid-20th
century. The rapid transformation of U.S. and European treatment of
homeless animals in recent years, still underway, gives hope that Japan
too can achieve a rapid turnabout.
[See below.]
Japanese shelter data
by Yoshiko Seno
"AnimEarth" <jijibab@osk3.3web.ne.jp>
The Japanese dog population is
estimated to be 10 million: less than 10% of the human population, about
half of the U.S. dog-to-human ratio. The total number of licensed dogs
was 5,779,482 in 2000, believed to be 60-to-70% of the population.
In Japan 98 self-governing bodies do animal
control under the two applicable national laws and city or prefectural
bylaws. They killed 280,819 dogs in 1999, or about 2.8% to 4% of the
total dog population. This is very similar to the U.S. rate of dog-killing.
However, since we do not have no-kill shelters doing high-volume rescue
and adoption in Japan, many cities unnecessarily kill young and healthy
animals. In other cities, people have been working hard to reduce the
killing. I have gathered the 2001
animal control data from the major cities and prefectures:
I feel so sad living in Fukuoka prefecture. About 10 years ago Kanagawa and Fukuoka prefectures were not much different. Since then, they have chosen completely different directions. Fukuoka prefecture kills the most animals now, but people in Fukuoka do not beep the most dogs and cats, and it is not the poorest prefecture. As the numbers are still relatively
low compared to those of the U.S., Japan could become a no-kill nation
very quickly, if inspired with the will to do so. Some cities are already
close to the goal. If those cities could reach it, more might follow.
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