RANT 'N' RAVE
Man's best friend
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Illustration by Marco
Mancini |
When I first came to Japan I
thought the people had a tough time living in small rabbit hutches, crammed in on top of
each other. But now, three years later, I feel that the pets here, particularly the dogs,
get an even rougher deal. My next door neighbor is a case in point. They have a Japanese
mongrel that they keep chained outside the house on the concrete driveway in ALL weather.
Be it rain, the recent heavy snows or hurricanes, it would still be tethered to the
toolbox above its tiny kennel. And even though the poor thing wakes me up sometimes with
mournful whining at all hours, my heart goes out to this animal who gets walked and
watered twice a day for its owners pleasure and then promptly returned to its prison cell.
On the way home, I cycle past one particular house's backyard - if you could call it that,
as it's more like a dirt strip where an often lamentable-looking golden retriever sits
tied up with absolutely no room to run or even walk, and no greenery or grass.
And near my home, there is a rather shocking-looking pet shop, jam-packed with barking
dogs, particularly the bloodshot, weeping-eyes-in-the-window kind. I really am not tempted
to venture inside as previous visits to other establishments of this kind have left me
feeling exasperated and angry at the inhumane conditions, the squalid and smelly boxes and
listless creatures, usually the miniature dogs seemingly so popular over here. But after
reading stories of how the Japanese love and pamper their pets (this is hard to believe
sometimes) I find this rather selfish attitude towards their animal welfare unfathomable.
It is simple: Do not have a dog unless you have the space or the time to treat it
humanely. They seem to be treated as accessories like a scarf you put on when you go out,
and hang up or throw aside when not needed. And I find it paradoxical that in a highly
developed society that cares a great deal about appearance and harmony, the treatment and
condition of these animals in the pet shops leaves a lot to be desired and is far from
harmonious for the animals concerned.
Many thanks to Julie Zirngast for this Rant.
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