Protection activity after the disaster. There are lives that we should still save.
October 10th, 2012
Our delegate Yui Akiko interviewed with Tokyo Newspaper on August 13th, 2012.
There was a donation event for protected cats from afflicted areas in a shopping mall near JR Kawasaki station. Yui Akiko, who is a delegate of a humane association
“Inuneko Kyusainowa”, and “TNR Japan Anumal Welfare Hospital”, said “I always pray and wish for their happiness in a new life. They have had enough pain.” “Inuneko Kyusainowa” was founded 20 years ago. The killing of the wild cats was the background that led to this. She read in an article concerning animal gas chambers, about how they die after 40 minutes of suffering. She trembled at the thought of such a cruel reality. So the aim of the association is “Zero Killing”. Dogs are also part of the activity, but the barking makes problem for neighbors. Because of this, the focus turned more toward cats.
The sterilization cost is a big issue. Cats give birth twice in a year and 4 or 5 kittens will be born each time. Cats scan give birth at around 6 month old. The sterilization is important for limiting the increase of wild cats.
The sterilization is generally 15,000 yen to 20,000 yen for males, and 25,000 yen to 30,000 yen for females. When she had 50 cats to take care of, she got a discount price of 15,000 yen per cat. The maximum she spent was 1,000,000 yen for a month for medical expenses. This expense was paid in total from her own pocket. She was searching for a low price animal hospital. Lacking such a facility, she started to think of building her own hospital.
When one park was renewed, 150 wild cats in this park were thrown out. She tried to negotiate with the authorities to build a shelter. She asked veterinarians to provide sterilization at a low price in this shelter. Through such activity, she met some supporters, and also received donations totalling about 7,000,000 yen. She added her savings, and finally founded “TNR Japan Animal Welfare Hospital” (Ohshima, Kawasaki) 3 years ago.
Right now, she's taking care of 60 cats in her house and shelter. She wanted to save as many of the wild cats as she can. But as she is now 56 years old, she thought it would be better not to accept more, but rather concentrate on taking care of the cats she has now. Then disaster happened.
Last April, she ordered 100 capture cages. She went into Naraha, Tomioka, Futaba, Namie, and Okuma with other humane associations before these become off-limits areas. She tried to capture the cats for which she had requests from the owners. Also she left food, to prevent starvation. The fate of cats which were left inside houses was tragic. They were desperate to get out, and there were deep scratches on the doors. There were corpses that were skeletons from the neck down. “It was hell for the cats. The protected cats were also behaving incredibly, like babies. They must have felt so lost.” Yui filled with tears.
In July, 31 cats in a 6-day donation event found new families. Still now she visits afflicted areas twice a month to rescue dogs and cats as much as possible.
“There are lives that we should still save.”. She smiled gently but powerfully, there in her hospital, surrounded by many capture cages full of food.
Our delegate Yui Akiko interviewed with Tokyo Newspaper on August 13th, 2012.
There was a donation event for protected cats from afflicted areas in a shopping mall near JR Kawasaki station. Yui Akiko, who is a delegate of a humane association
“Inuneko Kyusainowa”, and “TNR Japan Anumal Welfare Hospital”, said “I always pray and wish for their happiness in a new life. They have had enough pain.” “Inuneko Kyusainowa” was founded 20 years ago. The killing of the wild cats was the background that led to this. She read in an article concerning animal gas chambers, about how they die after 40 minutes of suffering. She trembled at the thought of such a cruel reality. So the aim of the association is “Zero Killing”. Dogs are also part of the activity, but the barking makes problem for neighbors. Because of this, the focus turned more toward cats.
The sterilization cost is a big issue. Cats give birth twice in a year and 4 or 5 kittens will be born each time. Cats scan give birth at around 6 month old. The sterilization is important for limiting the increase of wild cats.
The sterilization is generally 15,000 yen to 20,000 yen for males, and 25,000 yen to 30,000 yen for females. When she had 50 cats to take care of, she got a discount price of 15,000 yen per cat. The maximum she spent was 1,000,000 yen for a month for medical expenses. This expense was paid in total from her own pocket. She was searching for a low price animal hospital. Lacking such a facility, she started to think of building her own hospital.
When one park was renewed, 150 wild cats in this park were thrown out. She tried to negotiate with the authorities to build a shelter. She asked veterinarians to provide sterilization at a low price in this shelter. Through such activity, she met some supporters, and also received donations totalling about 7,000,000 yen. She added her savings, and finally founded “TNR Japan Animal Welfare Hospital” (Ohshima, Kawasaki) 3 years ago.
Right now, she's taking care of 60 cats in her house and shelter. She wanted to save as many of the wild cats as she can. But as she is now 56 years old, she thought it would be better not to accept more, but rather concentrate on taking care of the cats she has now. Then disaster happened.
Last April, she ordered 100 capture cages. She went into Naraha, Tomioka, Futaba, Namie, and Okuma with other humane associations before these become off-limits areas. She tried to capture the cats for which she had requests from the owners. Also she left food, to prevent starvation. The fate of cats which were left inside houses was tragic. They were desperate to get out, and there were deep scratches on the doors. There were corpses that were skeletons from the neck down. “It was hell for the cats. The protected cats were also behaving incredibly, like babies. They must have felt so lost.” Yui filled with tears.
In July, 31 cats in a 6-day donation event found new families. Still now she visits afflicted areas twice a month to rescue dogs and cats as much as possible.
“There are lives that we should still save.”. She smiled gently but powerfully, there in her hospital, surrounded by many capture cages full of food.
