Works of the Center for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Kumamoto City

Do you know how many dogs and cats are killed for disposal in a year? About three hundred thousand dogs and cats are killed all over the country per year. Dogs and cats that have been caught or have been abandoned due to their owners’ circumstances are taken charge of by the Centers for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of local autonomies. When owners of those dogs and cats became clear, they are returned to their owners. Dogs and cats whose owners didn’t become clear, or which were abandoned by their owners are handed over to new owners. However, if the owners don’t become clear, and also, if they are not handed over to new owners, those dogs and cats are killed by gas. Nowadays local autonomies of all over the country devise various works to decrease the number of dogs and cats that are brought to the Centers. Especially, the Center for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Kumamoto City has greatly decreased the number of dogs and cats that are killed for disposal with some unique works. Let me introduce those works.

First, staff of the Center doesn’t receive dogs and cats that are brought there easily, and try to persuade owners not to abandon their pets. The staffs tell, sometimes with their voice raised, the preciousness of life, owners’ duty and responsibility to owners who brought their pets to the Center, and try to get them to change their minds. The number of dogs and cats that were taken charge of by the Center has decreased from 492 to 52 since the Center began this work.

Second, the Center holds a meeting to hand over dogs and cats once a month. However, new owners can’t receive dogs and cats easily. They must take a course about what owners should know, and must get an interview with a veterinarian to be judged whether he or she is fit to be an owner before they are handed over dogs and cats. Also, new owners must promise to prevent their dogs and cats’ conception or have them neutered after they are handed over them, and must hand in a written pledge to keep their pets until their death.

In addition, the Center discloses information of dogs and cats that it protects on website of the city. The number of dogs and cats that were returned to their owners and that were handed over to new owners has been increasing year by year by beginning to carry pictures of dogs and cats that are protected by the Center on website, and disclose information actively since October, 2002. Especially, the number of dogs and cats that had been handed over became about 10 times, from 28 to 237, over the past 10 years.

In this way, through those several works, the number of dogs and cats that had been killed for disposal in Kumamoto City decreased from 946 to 78 compared with 10 years ago. In 2007, the return rate was about 43% and the survival rate was about 78%, which was the top level in Japan. I think it is necessary to spread those works to all over the country, and to decrease killing for disposal. Also, I think it is important for owners to keep their pets until their death with responsibility. I hope that someday the world will be rid of killing animals for disposal.