Tezuka In English Discussion Forums

hi guys, I posted some info on the topic of animal welfare in Japan before but we just hit the national press in Japan so thought I'd include a link.,


David

That is amazing ^_^

So are you currently housing 50 cats?

I used to be part of a wildlife rescue league, and of course, it is ultimately housing that becomes the problem (and time...)

yes - about 50. Our goal is more to reduce the number of births than to provide shelter. However, with virtually no shelters in the entire country, no national animal welfare organization, weak laws and weaker enforcement, and irresponsible pet owners, you just can't ignore a box of kittens that someone has put into the trash. A few years of that and they start to add up.
David
http://www.japancatnet.com/

You need a modern day Tezuka to write to the Japanese-everyman and try to create a culture shift in attitude toward cats.

Are you paying for all these spays/neuters out of your own pocket? donations? Or a combination of both?

Either way, keeping 50 cats on hand must be a massive undertaking. I've found after 3 they start taking over.

Good luck!

Edit: Do people you speak with in Japan 'come around', or do they see what you are doing as silly?

I have helped quite a few people to catch cats in their own neighborhoods, for the purpose of spay/neuter. Basically we hope they will pay the costs themselves but we ourselves have paid for around 200 spays and neuters. There is an enormous contrast on this issue between Japan and the other countries in their budget bracket. We have mostly received less helpful reactions from the public.

Just this last week a Canadian couple contacted me a half a dozen train stops away. We caught the feral cat they were concerned about. She had been suffering from FIV-AIDS, with mouth ulcers, anemia and malnutrition. We hoped to spay her but she was too sick to even survive the operation. We had her euthanized instead. Of course the town she came from has an active stray cat population rife with AIDS. People don't think about that part. Because of what we have done there is no cat AIDS in our town.

David

That's amazing David. I had no idea you were doing this on such a scale!

I wanted to alert peope who were interested in this sort of thing about the annual dolphin hunt currently going on in Taiji, Japan.
http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

Nearly a thousand or more are killed every year for food. It is a supressed story in Japan. I have never talked to a Japanese person who knew about it yet the Japanese officals who represent the story use the adage that "It is an old part of our culture which should be preserved."

David