Animal Shelter ARK Celebrates Publication

Every week, the photos of cats and dogs seeking homes are presented in the Japan Times in collaboration with and in support of the nonprofit organization Animal Refuge Kansai. This week, ARK is anticipating the publication of its full-color photo collection “Rescue! Elizabeth Oliver’s Animal Refuge.” (Japanese title: エリザベス・オリバーの動物シェルター)

Book-signings with shelter founder Elizabeth Oliver will be held in Tokyo on Nov. 16 and in Osaka’s Umeda Kinokuniya on Nov. 22.

A full-color, 128-page, B5-size photo collection, “Rescue!” features photos by professional photographer Kyoko Harada and includes the history of ARK, an interview with Oliver and, most of all, beautiful photographs and introductions of many of the animals that live or have lived at the shelter.

“All the animals pictured in this book have come to ARK from sad backgrounds; abandoned, stray, thrown away, given up, abused,” a passage from the book reads. “But look at these animals now; relaxed, healthy and loving. They are the lucky ones.”

In addition to its rehoming activities ARK seeks to raise awareness of animal welfare in Japan and promote what it calls the “Five Freedoms” for animals: freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury and disease, freedom to express normal behavior and freedom from fear and distress.

Though founded by a non-Japanese and the first Japanese organization to become an International Associate of the RSPCA (England’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), ARK strives to work hand in hand with Japanese and Japan’s authorities to bring about change. Oliver, in an excerpt from the book, says, “Rather than criticizing local governments, individuals, and organziations, ARK hopes that they will, by seeing ARK’s methods and facilities, change to treat animals more humanely.”

“Rescue!” will be available in bookstores from Nov. 7 and through Amazon the following day. However, ARK is asking supporters to further help the animals’ cause and hold off purchases until the week of Nov. 16 or to reserve a copy of the book through ARK’s Tokyo branch. The reason for the at-first-seemingly unusual request is that, if 300 books are sold at Tokyo’s Kinokuniya bookstore that week, the book has a good chance of being put on the store’s “Best-selling List”. This list is picked up by stores around Japan, meaning “Rescue!” will go to local stores nationwide, a huge boon to the
organization’s work.

‘‘Rescue!’’ a photo collection to be published on November 7 by Animal Refuge Kansai, features one of the shelter’s former animals, Yuu, an abused dog who is now preparing for a new life in England. The shelter’s founder, Elizabeth Oliver, and friends are seen on the book’s promotional sleeve.

This article was originally published in the Japan Times on Saturday, November 1, 2008.

Nathan Winograd and No-Kill Shelters

Nathan Winograd is an advocate of no-kill shelters who is spearheading a revolution in the way that pet advocacy groups think and operate.

If you think of animal-rights activists as rabid, Nathan Winograd disappoints. A cat person in fact, he’s also a cat person in personal style: unobtrusive in appearance, measured in his gestures, fastidious in his quotes. Make no mistake, however: he wants a revolution, and he wants it now.

His cause is pets—“companion animals,” to give them the dignified title he feels they deserve. Winograd, JD ’95, believes that if the public knew that the leading killer of healthy dogs and cats in this country is the system of shelters charged with protecting them, the public would be horrified. And he believes that if people understood that these deaths were unnecessary, he would have his revolution tomorrow.

Through his No Kill Advocacy Center and his recent book, Redemption: The Myth of Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America (Almaden Books), Winograd works to redirect animal shelters to ensure that animals are adopted, not killed. The cornerstone of his approach: stop blaming the public for abandoning and mistreating animals, and make it easy for people to do the right thing.

Read the full article on the Stanford Magazine site.

Book: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation

Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America is the last book in a long, long time that I couldn’t put down. It starts with a short history of the movement in the US to stop animal abuse in the mid 1800’s. Then it moves through how the organizations which we entrust with animal welfare have come to a conclusion. The conclusion is that there are too many cats and dogs, far more than people could ever want as pets and so most of them must be killed. According to the author the number of cats and dogs killed annually by animal shelters in the US has reached 5 million.

Nathan J. Winograd, a lawyer, and animal shelter director in US, challenges many of the assumptions held by shelter directors and staff in the United States. He built on the achievements of others to develop
a way of sheltering that says healthy cats and dogs do not have to be killed for lack of space. In short, he does it by first unplugging from the cushy million dollar contracts to kill animals on behalf of the city and country. Then to develop high volume/low cost and free spay neuter programs, stop euthanizing feral cats, start TNR programs, expand adoption and fostering programs, capitalize on volunteers, and build a staff that believes the public are an asset not a liability.

Winograd has many critics and detractors. If you believe him, the major organizations have used propaganda to undermine his credibility and distort his results. I had many questions as I read through this. Still I found it challenging and inspiring. I’d recommend it for anyone interested in any way with animal welfare.

Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain

The above is a new book to be published in March 2008. Written by Martha Sherrill, it tells the story of Morie Sawataishi and his life long devotion to saving the Akita dog. By the time Japan surrendered in 1945, there were only 16 Akitas left in the country. They were used by the military as either food or fur to line the vests of military jackets. It became Morie’s passion to save these dogs from an almost certain extinction. Today, Morie is 94 years old an still lives with his Akitas. According to the review in the Jan/Feb 2008 issue of The Bark,

“In the old days of Japan, honoring the specific look or ‘breed’ was never part of the dog tradition. Spirit was the thing one hoped to keep alive.” Dog Man is a celebration of a man with spirit to spare, and of the dogs who marked and enriched his life.

Barnes and Noble offers a more in depth review here.

The book is available for preorders from Amazon Japan.

Book: The Cat Who Covered The World

One of our members recommends the book The Cat Who Covered The World: The Adventures Of Henrietta And Her Foreign Correspondent. (Also available through Amazon.co.jp)

From the Amazon review:

Christopher Wren belonged to Henrietta the cat, and Christopher Wren travels far and wide in his work as a foreign news correspondent. Of course Henrietta insisted on being brought along to Moscow, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, and all the other cities the Wrens visited. And of course Henrietta got into all sorts of scrapes — cats can cause enough trouble right in their own living rooms! The Cat Who Covered the World is a tremendously entertaining memoir and travelogue, covering 17 years in the life of a busy cat and her accommodating family.