“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” Anatole France, French Author (1844-1924).

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When watching the cute puppies lining the windows of Tokyo’s pet shops it’s tempting to want to walk inside and pay the overpriced fee for a new pet. But if you knew what goes on behind the scenes to get that puppy there you may just end up turning away in disgust.

As Japan’s breeders try to keep up with animal trends and cut costs, many dogs here face a life of problems. Briar from the ARK animal shelter explains:

Briar Simpson, Tokyo ARK Representative

Because of unethical breeding dogs in Japan are four times as likely to have a genetic defect. Depends on the breed but, certainly Labradors 4 times likely to have a genetic defect then in America or in Europe.

Due to breeders imbreeding dogs and overbreeding them the brothers and sisters of the one cute puppy in the shop may have been born without some of their paws, missing an eye, or with another birth defect. Some may have hidden diseases that don’t show up until later.

One of our staff, a young Japanese woman, she didn’t know that you could adopt from a shelter. She didn’t even know that shelters existed. She thought if you want a pet, you have to go to a pet shop. She adopted two Miniature Pintchers. In the first year they both had two major operations…One of them jumped off a cushion that was on to the floor and broke his front leg.

Puppies that make it to the shop are sold for around 150,000 yen upwards. When they become too big the price goes down. But if a sale isn’t made…

More often that not they are sold back to the breeder and used as a breeding dog.

Ark, is one organization actively addressing the welfare of animals through their rescue work, animal shelter, and animal adoption and fostering programs.

Part of our work in Tokyo is to let people…400 dogs and 650 cats a day are being killed by animal control…by going to a shelter to adopt.

Ark’s adoption fee is 15,000 yen for each animal, regardless of the breed. They have a number of purebred dogs as well as puppies, more mature well-trained dogs, and cats. For the fee every pet comes neutered, fully vaccinated, and micro-chipped. If you want to adopt Ark has a shelter in Osaka as well as monthly adoption events in Tokyo. During the event visitors can meet and play with the animals and even take one home on the same day. If you want to learn more visit Ark’s website or Spinshell’s event listing page.

Being a pet owner in Tokyo requires a high level of commitment and a lot of time and love. If you’re not sure you can be there for an animal, long term, you may consider fostering an animal.

If you’re in Japan…(explanation of fostering program)…. It can be a lot of fun for you, a lot of fun for your children.

Having a pet is fun for everyone but people must remember they have to be there for their pets just like they would be there for a child. As author Benjamin Hoff said, “Lots of people talk to animals but not very many listen though…. That’s the problem.” It’s time for us to listen more carefully to the problems animals in Tokyo endure and take action to protect them.

Special Thanks to ARK http://www.arkbark.net

Quotes have been slightly altered for print. For the accurate quotations, please refer to the video.

Story by Karryn Cartelle
All Rights Reserved, Spinshell Inc.

Spinshell Reports are three minute episodes of useful information about visiting and living in Japan.

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Tags: abuse, animal, ARK, cats, dogs, industry, japan, pets

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 22:54 and is filed under Spinshell Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.