Japan to redefine goal of no cat, dog culling

May 3, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Environment Ministry plans to exclude cats and dogs that are unfit for ownership transfers from local government animal welfare goals that call for the elimination of culling, according to informed sources.

The revision is aimed at preventing accidents in which people who took custody of aggressive cats or dogs are injured by the animals, as well as the spread of infectious diseases, the sources told Jiji Press.

The ministry hopes to reflect the change in its guidelines on animal welfare planned to be amended in the current fiscal year to March 2019, the sources said.

Under the 2012 revised law on welfare and management of animals, prefectural governments and ordinance-designated major cities are required to make efforts to find new owners for cats and dogs in their custody that were released by their previous owners, in order to reduce culling to zero.

Following the revision, 42 prefectural and major city governments are promoting campaigns to get rid of cat or dog culling. The number of cats and dogs that were put down by these governments plunged from about 128,000 in fiscal 2013 to some 56,000 in fiscal 2016.

But the ministry's tally of culling includes animals that are not appropriate for ownership transfers and death in custody, so it is difficult to reduce the total to zero.

Of the total in fiscal 2016, about 16,000 cats and dogs were deemed inappropriate for transfers to new owners because of diseases or high levels of aggressiveness.

Some local governments were preoccupied with achieving the zero culling target and hurried to transfer cats and dogs to animal welfare organizations, resulting in overcrowding shelters.

The ministry believes it unavoidable to cull cats and dogs for which it is difficult to find new owners due to such safety reasons, the sources said.

The Tokyo metropolitan government and some other municipalities aiming to eliminate the culling of cats or dogs have already limited their surveys to cover only animals that allow ownership transfers.

The ministry also plans to exclude from its tally animals that are difficult to be transferred to new owners.

There are still calls for ridding the nation of cat or dog culling for any reason.

The ministry hopes to gain a better understanding of the new definition of no animal culling, by highlighting the dangers of infectious diseases spreading from animals unfit for ownership transfers and owners being injured by aggressive animals. Jiji Press