Today, our team went off in three directions. One group went as close as possible to the nuclear exclusion zone, to investigate reports of a ghost town 20 miles away from the Fukushima reactor, where irradiated animals have been left to starve and die of exposure. Another went back to find, feed, and even wrangle the calf we discovered wandering in Kashima yesterday. In the process, they also rescued two more dogs on the verge of death.
My team brought animal food and human supplies to 2 evacuation centers, and negotiated with an animal control facility for the release of 10 dogs they had. We were assured that the animals would not be put down under any circumstance, and offered to take all of them on the spot. Due to concerns that the owners may return for them, we were initially turned down. But, if and when the center feels that it is necessary to destroy them, we were promised that they could be released to Animal Friends Niigata’s No-Kill shelter instead. We are currently still working on getting them out anyway, so that they could be fostered in a more loving environment while they await their humans. We will not allow them to end up in a gas chamber – and will use whatever means necessary to assure this.
Finally, we searched up and down the coast east of Iwaki for more “Norainu” (Stray Dogs) but were, unfortunately, unsuccessful.
As preparations are still being made for overnight trips in the North we decided to head south of Fukushima nuclear plant to investigate reports of abandoned dogs, cats, and cows. Right now its 3:22am and I have to be up in 4 hours so I have to sleep. Hopefully these pics will be worth a few thousand words to you all.
I will try and write a better report tomorrow if I can. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
As the adoptions and fosters begin in earnest at the shelters in the South, I bid my new furry friends a fond farewell – knowing that they are in good hands and will eventually find good homes.
I packed up all the supplies I could carry and, with my rucksack filled to the brim, set forth on the bullet train. It’s a five hour journey to the JEARS base camp in the North, outside of Sendai. Once again, I am amazed at the speed and efficiency of this unbelievable form of transit! It is almost difficult to believe that I am traveling at roughly 300kmph, as the ride is as smooth as glass. About a third of the way through this journey, while I was focused on something else, I heard the distinct sound of camera shutters firing away from everywhere in my car. I looked up to see perhaps the most iconic image of Japan – Fuji-san – in his full splendor, complete with a beautiful snowy cap.
With areas of Japan like this, still as vibrant as ever, it is difficult to imagine the complete devastation I will soon see. But I am not risking my health and safety here to simply get a discount tourism package, I am here to assist in a time of the greatest need in the areas that need it the most.
Greeted by snow flurries and a wonderful JEARS volunteer (and Australian national who, it happens, shares a name with another disaster we all recognize: Katrina) – I arrive at the base camp in Niigata-shi, Niigata, Japan for the next phase of the mission.
After a much-needed sleep in an actual bed, I wake with a new plan of action, and the anticipation of the arrival of reinforcements from the professional animal rescue team, the Kinship Circle – who are set to join us gradually over the next few days.
One of the problems that has faced the rescue teams thus far is that the animals, especially the cats, have instinctively gone into hiding since the disaster. When teams travel to these areas to search for them, it is extremely difficult to suss them out. Often, the terrified animals simply hide deeper in the nooks and crannies of the rubble when strange humans they don’t know come near.
This, of course, has been weighing heavily on the JEARS team – as we know that the longer these poor animals remain in this circumstance, without their former humans there to offer them food and shelter, the more likely that it is that we will not be able to rescue them at all. In order to solve this problem, I am now preparing myself to stay out in the devastated areas on an extended basis, setting up feeding stations and live traps. This will allow us to both track any activity in the areas, and gather the animals for transport to safer places and shelters we have prepared.
This won’t exactly be the safest situation for us, nor will it even be technically legal. But we are confident in both our preparedness, and our abilities to sneak around any check points – as the teams have already been learning the best routes and places to get in. The need to do something for these animals far outweighs my concerns of comfort and any threats of arrest. Although we are confident that this will not be an issue for us, we still must be very careful. An animal rescuer with hypothermia, or sitting in jail, will be of no use to anyone – especially the animals we have come to help.
So, the preparations are underway. The plan should begin as soon as this evening when it will be easier to find a good place to position ourselves as safely, and “legally,” as possible. It may become more difficult to report on things from this point forward. Basics like internet and electricity may not be accessible when it is difficult to even get bare necessities like food and fresh water. I will do my best to get information out when I can. This plan may take at least a few days to fully implement in order to assure as much safety and security as possible for all of us.
Well, it was a very hard day here in Japan yesterday, and I am going to keep this post a little shorter than the others – so I don’t say anything in frustration that I may regret later.
Stresses abound among us rescuers. Pressures from folks thousands of miles away, demanding satisfaction for their own desires of what we should be doing, are definitely starting to have an effect. It’s so often the case that the people who have no idea whats going on here think they know, better than us, what to do. The difficulty is that most people willing to sacrifice everything to get here, and do what they can physically to help, tend to be very sensitive folks – and we take things deeply to heart. We try to make everyone happy, if even at the cost of ourselves.
While, by no means, would I ever wish to downplay the tragedy here, seeing heartbreaking things did not get in the way of my work in the Gulf last summer, nor is it weighing on me here. I have the skills to cope with seeing terrible things. I can put them out of mind enough to focus on the tasks at hand, and leave them in their place when the work is done.
What I cannot deal with, and what is already weighing on me again, causing my stomach to churn and keeping me up all night, are the frustrations and foibles of people. One would think it should be a simple matter of rolling up one’s sleeves and simply getting in there – saving cats, dogs, birds, whatever…but it is never as simple as that?
Sometimes I wish humans could be a little less “intelligent” and be a little more like the animals we are here to rescue.
Apologies for the delay in this post. We are working out some planning for the next couple days and, before I tell you about what I will be doing next, I want to make sure it is all prepped up and ready to go. I will be heading to the disaster zones to get down to the real work I came here for very soon.
Instead of the update on me, however, I want to educate you all a little about what it’s like to be a dog or a cat in Japan. I have learned so much in the last 72 hours about them, and I want to make sure you all know what I have come to know.
First of all, I want to be perfectly clear that there are some amazingly caring Japanese people here, that are giving so much of themselves to the rescue of animals, that I would feel honored to know some of them and call them friends. The self-sacrifice of these people is truly inspiring to say the least.
However, with that said, I would definitely not want to be a stray dog or, most certainly, a stray cat in Japan.
I advise you to check out the Japanese Documentary “Dogs, Cats & Humans (Inu to Neko to Ningen to.) I have attached the trailer below.
Fair warning: this movie can be difficult to see, and may inspire some serious disgust at the state of stray cats and dogs in Japan long before this current situation began. However, I feel it’s very important to the work for these animals, and the future of those we rescue, if more people realize what has largely been kept secret by an extremely shame-faced society regarding this issue.
David of JCN has listed 4 separate major problems as follows:
1] First, and perhaps foremost, there is somewhere in the neighborhood of a 30% spay and neuter rate among pets and strays in Japan – as compared to 90% in EU, and roughly 75% in the US. As a consequence, the tendency of kitten/puppy dumping among pet owners here is extremely high. This, of course, then becomes an exponentially growing problem – as those strays that are able to survive the dumping then become the parents of generations of more strays as well.
2] The practice of gassing is still the most widely implemented method of destroying animals in Japan and, as you may see in the documentary, most of the state sponsored animal control facilities kill over 99% of all dogs brought in and, in most cases, 100% of the cats.
3] There aren’t many organizations here on the ground helping these animals and/or helping to educate/change the Japanese public. In fact, the groups I am working with here – along with Peta, the SPCA (and a few others I could count on the fingers of one hand) – are all there are, aside from State-run control facilities, whose focus is not on the animals, but rather population control and disposal. Most of the so-called shelters in Japan are actually, in fact, animal disposal facilities.
4] Finally, the animal protection laws are very lenient – if even enforced at all. The concept of Animal welfare – much less Animal Rights and Animal liberation – is largely not even contemplated in Japan. The only translated equivalent in Japanese to these western ideas is a word loosely translated as “animal love”, which largely has nothing to do with actual responsibility. Many Japanese that are the most ardent lovers of cats and dogs abhor the idea of things like removing reproductive abilities, etc.
So, to finish, please watch that documentary. It is extremely informative and eye-opening. This is a very complicated issue. While it is important not to disparage the Japanese people as a whole, this issue must be addressed if there is going to be any hope for the animals that the State-sponsored “animal rescue” workers are saving from the devastation right now.
In many ways, the real work for these animals here in Japan is that of rescuing the rescued from a fate far worse than homelessness and disaster displacement.
P.S. Yesterday, a third cat joined me in my classroom. We nicknamed him Kurohyou (Black Panther) – as that is what he most resembles in appearance. He is a very healthy and beautifully tempered cat, with a bobtail, who was also abandoned by his evacuating human. We are hoping he can help socialize Sid and Nancy a little, as he is very patient with their growls and hisses. Not to mention, he’s large and strong enough to treat Nancy as a gentle giant would, when dealing with a scrappy little fighter like her.
This is Sid and Nancy. They were some angry kitties. due to being left behind by their humans, who were evacuated back to Australia. They had no interest in dealing with the other cats in the JCN shelter and, like any good punks, took out that impatience on everyone around them.
Sid, much like her namesake, internalized her anxieties and became a total recluse – spending all her time in the most hidden-away part of the shelter, sleeping all day, and/or screaming out at the world for doing her wrong.
Nancy, on the other hand, was not about to let her anger go unnoticed by anyone, especially the other cats she was sharing space with. She viciously attacked all who came near her - including David – who accepted the scratches and bites with true patience and understanding.
Clearly something needed to be done for them.
I met Nancy first – and she made sure I knew how dangerous she was, with hisses and very sharp clawed swipes, as I offered my hand for her to meet me. I was most careful not to allow those swipes to connect but, nonetheless, remained undeterred. I definitely understood her feelings – and I recognized that approaching her on her own terms was necessary if she and I were to be friends.
The first day I met her, I didn’t even touch her, but did allow her to eventually give my hand a sniff. I then gave her some food and walked away. Today, when I returned, she was much different toward me and actually rushed up to me and immediately proceeded to begin cheek rubbing me to claim me as her own. She solidified this claim of me by, once again, viciously attacking any and all the other cats that came up to me looking for love as well. She was also quite clear that, although I could now pet and scratch her all she liked, I was not to pick her up… (yet).
But this was a huge step for Nancy ,as until now, she had not allowed any touching by a human – without a payment in blood first. Now, however, Nancy was literally under each step while I cleaned her shelter area, continuously rubbing and entwining among my legs.
Sid was still quite upset today, as she was every other, and had still not accepted any attention without stressing quite vocally. Considering that their most pressing issue was that they despised having to live with the other cats in the shelter, we decided it would be good to move them both to the school room I am currently sleeping in. So, I asked Nancy nicely if she would kindly get into a cat-carrier so I could take her somewhere else. To my surprise she immediately rushed into it, turned around, and lay down without even so much as a push.
Sid, however, was a still quite upset. We needed to use a very large cage, which we covered with a blanket, as we packed them both up and walked them the 6 blocks from the shelter to the classroom.
Once these two arrived at their new temporary housing, it was almost as if someone picked them up, turned them over, and flipped their switches from evil to good. They are now happily exploring all the nooks and crannies of this crazy place, and/or dozing happily on chairs and shelves.
I am hoping that Nancy will come join me under the table I am sleeping under tonight.
For the first official day of volunteering I took the Shinkansen (bullet train) south to meet David Wybenga the heart and soul of Japan Cat Network (http://www.japancatnet.com/). He has been working for over ten years to not only help the cats of Japan find safe and loving homes long before any of this disaster began, but also to inform and educate the people here that stray cats are not in fact vermin as they are often viewed.
Since this disaster he has spent upwards of 22 hours a day (or more) networking and searching for cats, providing shelter and foster homes wherever he can. What many may not realize is that the need to find a place for those pets left behind in the rush of foreign countries to evacuate their citizens, might actually be greater than the need to find those that were displaced in the disaster areas. As foreign countries are evacuating their citizenry they may not be allowed to bring their furry friends with them. Additionally many folks may believe they are going to return soon and therefore leave a week or so’s food and water for their pets and decide to lock them inside their homes. If the evacuation ends up lasting much longer as is quite probable, then these poor animals, while safe from devastation, are now sealed into their home left to die of starvation when the food runs dry.
For this very serious need, David has taken it upon himself to network with folks for foster care for these animals, while their humans are gone. If need be he has declared he will take in each and every one of these animals, either temporarily or in many cases a semi-permanent basis. I went with him to his shelter, which is actually his own home he has converted into a wonderful habitat for over 40 cats. I helped him clean up his litter boxes and food bowls and additionally gave some love to his huge family of very confused kitty’s. He has even added two very adorable, very venerable, blind chihuahuas to the family; a first for JapanCatNetwork.
Personally, I think the cat named Chali liked me the best, but perhaps that was just because we share names and I was perhaps a little more partial to him for that.
Clearly exhausted, David was still able to speak profoundly about his entire effort in a way that was both non-judgmental and at the same time wholly dedicated to this cause, even in the face of opposition and the harsh reticence of people to admit that this is taking place. His dedication is best summed up in his own words,
