Japan is regarded as one of the most technologically advanced and economically wealthy nations in the world. Yet in terms of animal welfare it ranks as a third world country. Somehow in the great post-war Japanese miracle when peoples' lives and prosperity improved beyond everyone's dreams, animal welfare got left behind. Perhaps it is because animals have no voice and no political clout that they have been ignored and abused for so long. As people have got richer they have aquired possessions and alongside cars and videos they have collected expensive pedigree pets. These pets like other commodities get bought at whim and discarded when they are no longer fashionable or people get tired of them.

There is a law called the Animal Protection and Control Law (1973) which is primarily designed to protect people from animals, not the other way around. It is so ineffective, unknown (to authorities like the police) and therefore unenforceable that it is generally referred to as the 'sieve' law. It has no definition of cruelty and the handful of truly terrible cases that have been prosecuted in nearly 30 years have been let off with a paltry 30,000 yen (US$ 250) fine, less than one would get for stealing a bicycle.

Cases in need of prosecution or regulation

Individual cruelty

A lone male sadist answers newspaper adverts offering free dogs or puppies. He takes them home and slowly tortures and multilates them, sometimes skinning them alive. Their screams echo around the neighbourhood at night. This has been going on for years !

Some people report this to the police, who do nothing. Others ask animal groups to help and this has led to prosecution papers being prepared. Evidence is collected; a statement by a veterinarian who treated one of the dogs plus gruesome photos of the mutilated dog, tape recorded evidence from neighbours who are afraid to show their faces or give their names for fear of reprisals. A strong case.

The result : case is rejected through lack of evidence and is not considered convincing enough to prove cruelty.

Hell holes

An old woman 'collector' keeps over 60 dogs because she 'likes animals'. The numbers remain constant because although the unneutered animals breed, many died of malnutrition, disease , severe flea infestation and mange. Many of these dogs are kept in tiny wire cages, where they are barely able to stand up or turn around. The shack with its leaking tin roof is encrusted with feces and reeks of urine, in summer it becomes a furnace. Result: The authorities say there is nothing they can do because these dogs are 'privately owned' and because the place is located far from other residences it is not considered a health hazard.

Pet shops, breeders, animal traders

Most pet owners buy their pets from pet shops. The business thrives on these gullible impulse buyers. The 'stock' they sell are bred, often in in backstreet or country premises which are unregulated and hidden from public view. The breeding animals are bred continuously until they 'wear out' usually at around 5-6 years, and are then disposed of. They spend their entire lives in tiny squalid cages. The puppies or kittens are removed when less than a month old, loaded into boxes, transported long distances to city pet auctions where they are pulled out , held up in front of noisy crowds, taken back to the pet shops where they are put on display until sold. As they grow bigger, their price tag drops and when they can no longer turn around they are taken to the public pound or killed at the pet shop. Pet shops animals are mostly carrying genetic deformities through irresponsible inbreeding. Their pedigree papers are often faked. This traumatic early start and lack of normal socialization results in physically weak adults, prone to disease and with a range of behavioural problems.

Conditions at pet shops are also over-crowded and unhygienic but anyone can open and run this business. No licencing, no law and no inspection applies. Some pet shops now deal in so-called 'exotic' pets, like wallabies, penguins, wild cats, birds of prey, reptiles of all kinds, tropical fish, tropical birds etc: some of which are species protected by CITES. However there is no law to prosecute a pet shop once the animals have entered the country. Even if it were possible it would be hard to find trained inspectors to decide what was or was not an 'endangered species' .

Again there is no regulation controlling animal traders who hold wild animals ' in transit' (supposedly for up to 6 months but can last for years), while they wait for a buyer, usually a zoo. Often the supply exceeds the demand and the animals languish in terrible conditions until they die.

Hokenshos (offices of Public Health and Hygiene which run 'kanri centres' or pounds for controlling, catching and exterminating stray animals):

There is no public office dealing with the protection or welfare of animals. They are classified as public nuisances, unsanitary and disposed of in the same way as garbage. Although the prefectural and city kanri centres employ 'token' veterinarians to sit in the office, they in practice do not handle the animals let alone give treatment to sick or injured animals or euthanize the suffering. The job of killing is sub-contracted to outside companies who make money on the side by selling animals to laboratories for experiments or by selling the meat and hides.

The hokensho catches dogs using crude wire nooses. These tighten around their necks to strangulation point as they struggle to escape. The old, the young, the sick, the injured, and the vicious are all thrown into the same truck which is as often as not without air-conditioning meaning the dogs suffocate in the summer heat. Others are brought in by their owners and puppies are often stacked in boxes or vinyl bags outside the hokensho where they slowly suffocate to death. Those that survive, wait a mandatory three days before being killed. The methods of killing range from electrocution, to decompression, gas and until recently animals were bludgeoned to death in country areas. All these methods are classified as 'inhumane' by RSPCA guidelines for euthanasia. Needless to say many animals die from trauma and shock during transport and after they reach the kanri centre. Some hokenshos are attempting to give themselves a face-lift by calling themselves 'Doobutsu Aigo Centres' (Love animals centres) where puppies are given to anyone that wants one. Others have automated the killing process so that the animals don't have to be handled at all but at the press of a button the walls move to force them into the next cell and eventually to the death cell, untouched by human hand. Although huge amounts of public money have been spent building these places, they are clearly designed for the convenience of people working there, not out of humane consideration for the animals.