Category Archive

The following article is from the Japan Times. David and Susan are members of Angels with Fur. I hope that our group can help them with this important work.

The Japan Cat Network, a grassroots animal welfare group in Shiga Prefecture organized and run by David Wybenga and his wife, Susan Roberts, has put out a plea for help with its Hirakata City Project. Initially featured in The Japan Times on Jan. 26 of this year, the network was asked in March to check out a park near the city of Hirakata, located between Osaka and Kyoto.

The situation at Yamada-Ike Koen was dire, utterly shocking. More than 50 cats, in various stages of health and disease, were found roaming the park. There were no signs of a TNR (trap, neuter, release)
program such as Japan Cat Network promotes, and none of the males appeared to be neutered. Two of the park cats were so ill that they had to be taken to a vet immediately.

In April, the group trapped 28 cats, most of them female, and had them neutered. More trapping is scheduled for this weekend and the following week. Wybenga calls the project “amazing”, one that he believes has the power “to change public perception in Kansai”. “Of all the projects I’ve been involved
in, this is the one to get behind.”

In the meantime, five kittens, then 2 weeks old, were found abandoned in a cardboard box in a park restroom. Two were already dead. Three survived and are thriving and being fed every four hours. This past Monday, four more kittens were found abandoned. One had already died. These kittens and others were all taken in.

“Busy and sleepy,” the Wybengas have their hands full. “Once we finish one round of feeding it’s almost time for the next.” And, with presently 11 kittens on the bottle, the network is out of money and in desperate need of help, but determined to keep the project going.

The group is in need of experienced kitten fosterers, loving adoptive homes, money and milk replacement powder (Esbilac for cats). Also, Wybenga says, “if someone is in the area and wants to
participate more directly, contact me.”

Contact info[AT]japancatnet.com by e-mail or check out the group’s homepage at http://www.japancatnet.com.

Esbilac can be sent to:
David Wybenga,
173 Inae,
Hikone, Shiga,
521-1125

Susan Mercer from Heart Tokushima wrote to us to let us know that they are making slow but steady progress with rescuing the dogs in Anan. She sent us pictures of three of the dogs that they have successfully rescued since we published the last post.

Aki

Natsu

Pichin

Please consider helping Heart Tokushima in any way that you can. See the original post for details on how to donate money or items.

Susan Mercer, from Heart Tokushima asked Angels with Fur to post the following information.

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Two women in Anan (阿南), Tokushima kept 48 dogs tied up on the side of a mountain. The dogs were in poor health and the conditions that they were being kept in were not humane. The two women, both in their 50s, fed the dogs, but did not clean up their waste or attend to their medical needs. The women have now been asked to leave the property. What will happen to the dogs?

HEART, a nonprofit animal protection organization in Tokushima Prefecture run by Susan Mercer, has been informed of the situation and is trying to deal with this case. On November 26, 2007, HEART members visited the home and were able to take custody of two puppies and one adult dog. The adult dog was given immediate medical attention, and it was found that she had an advanced case of heartworm (filaria). While she received treatment (3 litres of abdominal fluid were drained from her abdomen), she may still have to be euthanized due to the severity of her case. Heartworm is an infectious disease and the dogs who remain in the care of the two women are highly susceptible to contracting it. The women did not inoculate the dogs against heartworm or rabies, despite their obligation to do so under the Rabies Prevention Law.

The women are reportedly reluctant to give up the animals, but HEART is trying to find a way to solve this situation. Since they found out about the problem in November, they have rescued ten dogs and obtained land on which they can shelter the rest of the dogs. Animal Refuge Kansai (ARK) has offered to help them construct a building that would be big enough to house so many animals.

HEART needs our help to fix this situation. They are accepting donations of money and/or items and would be very grateful for our immediate help in this matter as the dogs need to be taken out of their current environment and given treatment against heartworm as soon as possible. (Heartworm is highly contagious so the other dogs have a very high chance of having contracted it. However, it is treatable, and the earlier they treat it, the better the chance of recovery.)

Here’s how we can help:

Donating Money

Donations in Japan

Transfer your donation to:
Account name: Anan Dogs Rescue Fund
Account number: 1162690
Bank: Awa Bank, Ihoku branch

Donations from Outside Japan

Send donations to our PayPal account:
susan@heart-tokushima.com

Or send a Japanese money order or international money order

Donating Items

HEART can make use of any of the following items.

dog food, stainless food bowls, blankets, collars, leads, grooming brushes, vinyl poop bags, dog muzzles, bleach, yard brushes, metal buckets, antiseptic soap, sponges, wash clothes, towels

If you can donate any of these items, please call HEART at 088-635-5558 or email susan[AT]heart-tokushima.com to arrange for drop off or pick up.

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Read more about this issue:

Anan Dogs Rescue Fund
Anan Dogs Update

Angels with Fur is mainly concerned with animals in Japan, but since animal welfare is an issue that needs as much publicity as it can get, we will make exceptions in some cases. The issue below involves a shelter in Korea. If you can offer any advice, please join the Aw/F mailing list or leave your ideas in the comments.

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A local animal rescue group in Daejeon, Korea has been organizing regular visits to a dog shelter, which now has to close because of a zoning violation of some sort. Volunteers have been negotiating with the city for more time, but time is running out and the shelter is scheduled to close at the end of October. The animals who don’t find adoptive or foster homes will end up in pounds.

Can anyone help, or suggest possible solutions? There are some really good volunteers doing what they can by putting up posters, providing foster care and working with local vets - but they still need to find a lot more foster homes.

For more information, please see http://www.lonelylifetime.com. If you need details, contact Tim or Annie (whose contact information is provided at the site).