Dark side of pet boom in Japan

July 16, 2009

Dark side of pet boom in Japan

My routine starts with the six-month-old Boston terrier on weekdays. I take the cat-like dog out for a walk for half an hour, sometimes longer, in the neighborhood. His friends include a four-year-old female bulldog. He shits twice, and I take it home and dispose of it. My wife and I sometimes take him to the beach, which can be reached with a 15-minute bike ride. I always tell him in my heart, “You were really lucky, weren’t you? You were luckier than other dogs.”
One can see pet shops with newly born dogs and cats in small display cages at almost every corner of major cities. The pet boom comes at a time when an increasing number of Japanese people want to have something to heal themselves amid strong stress in their daily life.

I make you my pet, because I hope you may be a means of remembering her, my unhappy love. For what are you crying this way?
(A personal translation)

This is a poem made by a young noble about his one-sided love with a princess in the Tale of Genji, a long novel of the early 11th century around the peak of the Heian Period. The novel fields a “very small, pretty Chinese cat” in an episode involving the two figures and the husband of the princess, Genji, who is the main character of the saga.

Kashiwagi, the young man, was invited to see an event at Genji’s lavish mansion one day and happened to have a glimpse of the princess standing behind a blind when a cat darted out from behind the blind and became entangled with its cord, lifting the blind and revealing the princess and her women inside. Charmed by her beauty, Kashiwagi unsuccessfully tried to approach her again. Hoping to obtain the cat instead, he persuaded the crown prince to seek the cat from the princess, Onna San no Miya, who is his younger sister. Kashiwagi, the intendant of the right gate watch, then succeeded in obtaining the cat from the crown prince.
The pet boom in today’s Japan has a dark side in which more than 300,000 dogs and cats are “disposed of” every year. Dogs and cats deserted by owners are collected at “animal protection centers” established by local governments. The collected pets have a week to wait for new owners in what they call “dream boxes” at the facilities. If nobody appears, death by gassing waits for them. The number of pets killed at these facilities has been declining in recent years. Animal Rights Center Japan and other related organizations are on campaigns to reduce the number to zero, but there are many hurdles to clear toward achieving the goal.

ARC, a 22-year-old nonprofit organization, set up a booth at a community fair in Kamakura, south of Tokyo, in July, trying to enhance the public awareness of various animal abuses. ARC blames breeders and pet shops and their money-oriented business for the continued killings of dogs and cats. But irresponsible owners also prevent the situation from being corrected. Owners should remind themselves that they keep living creatures, not things, experts say. The pet-related problems must be addressed as a matter which concerns the whole of society, not just persons interested, they say.
Kashiwagi always kept the cat around him and a few years later, he finally obtained an opportunity to sleep with the princess. This was against her will, but she gave birth to a boy baby before Kashiwagi dies. The novel gives no hint about the fate of the cat after his death.