Animal Cruelty in Japan (Or what almost ruined our trip)

Ok, so we're back from Japan again. We had an amazing trip, and I can honestly tell you that I'm very proud to be a part of the Kamikawara family. But I'll tell you more about our amazing adventures in Japan in a future post. I first want to tell you about something that happened to us that almost ruined our trip. Something really upsetting and disappointing.

There's a family of feral cats that live under the bleachers at the local baseball field in Hakui City. Every day my father in law wakes up at 5am and goes for a walk to feed the cats. Here's a short video of those cats:

My father in law is a very kind man and he has made feeding the cats part of his daily routine. There's actually a few people that do this periodically during the week, but my father in law is the only one that does it every day. The cats love him for it. Someone made a small house for the cats so they are protected from the wind and rain (which can sometimes come in the form of a typhoon as I discovered on October 9th, 2009).

I guess I didn't put too much thought into how the cats ended up there. I naively thought that feral cats must not be a common thing in Japan. I was very wrong.

I know Japan has a terrible history of animal cruelty. But on this trip I noticed that almost every mall and shopping center we visited had a pet store full of very sad looking puppies and kittens. The puppies available are almost all smaller breeds due to the lack of space and land in Japan. As a side note to this, there is a belief in Japan that animals are not clean, so they belong outside. Walking around at 5am with my in laws I saw first hand a number of unhappy dogs tied up in yards.

There's so much to tell you though, and I'm getting sidetracked... Natsuko and I spent a weekend at the Kyukamura Noto-Chirihama Hotel and Onsen. On our way into the hotel, my heart was broken. Natsuko and I heard the cries of an injured cat. We looked around and found a small kitten beside a bike rack at the entrance. At first the kitten was too scared to come near us, so we got a small packet of cat food and poured it some water. The kitten eventually came out, and that's when we noticed how injured it was. It was limping with an injured leg. It let me touch it's back, and that's when I noticed how twisted it's spine was. I can only guess it was either hit by a car or bicycle. It's tail was broken, one of it's eyes was infected, and it was very dehydrated and thin.

I was determined to help this kitten. But something was really wrong. It just didn't make sense. How could something like this be sitting in front of a hotel full of people and not be noticed ? We needed to get this cat to an animal shelter fast ! And that's when Natsuko told me the horrible truth.

There is no BC SPCA equivalent in Hakui City, Ishikawa.

I couldn't believe it. We had to do something ! We had some money with us, so we could take the cat to a vet. Natsuko explained that it would cost us thousands and there's a good chance most vets wouldn't accept a feral animal.

I was devastated. The kitten had stopped crying, so we fed it some more and then walked away. Just like everyone else had already done. Pretty @#$%ing pathetic on my part. Something I'm not very proud of.

I burst into tears and so did Natsuko. We promised each other that we wouldn't talk about it again. Natsuko's parents only see us once a year if they're lucky, so we didn't want to ruin the trip for them and for us. It goes without saying that Natsuko and I absolutely love animals, so this was heartbreaking. I spent the whole night thinking about that cat. I got up a few times in the middle of the night to look out the window and see if it was somewhere close by. We never saw it again.

I knew this was something I had to write about when I got back. Japan is a beautiful and amazing place. I highly recommend you go there someday if you get the chance. I still love it there, of course. I know that no place is perfect, but I guess it took me five trips to Japan to truly discover that.

We encountered a few other adult feral cats while we explored Ishikawa, but none of them appeared to be injured or sick.

I promise you that my next post about Japan will be the complete opposite from this one. We had so many positive experiences while we were there.

Long story short... support your local SPCA.

your pal,
Beadle