Japan and it’s Pet Culture: A not very happy story - 10% payout japansteemit

So, I’m Japanese, and when I tell this to foreign people I meet, in most of cases they smile and tell me “wow… I love Japan!”. This makes me feel happy, welcome, and proud of my country. Actually, I love Japan but there are somethings that I don’t like about it. And one of them, is the Japanese pet culture and the fact that there is no law that protects their life.

In this article, I’d like to tell you a bit of a dark side of Japan, that I wish it will get better ASAP!

Do Japanese like pets?

The answer is: it depends, as in many places. But I think that generally speaking, Japanese like animals, but many prefer not to have one due to their lifestyle, or because they have allergies or just because in their flats pets are not allowed (in Japan, many buildings prohibit to have dogs in the flats)

Anyways, I DO think that Japanese love animals because on the TV you can see them every day. Even during the morning news, you can see some animals funny moments clips.

What is the problem with the Japanese pet culture?

First of all, in this article, I will focus on DOGs and CATs, which are the most common pets in Japan.
So, there are many problems, such as:

Problem 1: There are PET STORES everywhere, especially in big cities:

when I was a kid, I thought pet stores are normal, because you see them quite often. However, if think just a bit, you can understand how crude it is. There are tiny dogs without their mum in small plastic boxes waiting to be “bought” by someone that passes by. And do you know what happen to them if they are not “bought”? Most of them won’t have future… as the pet store cannot afford feeding them and adult dogs are not popular…

Problem 2: The kennels:

In Japan public kennel can have the dog only for several days. If no one adopts him/her, they will have a bad end…There are also few kennels run privately by people that love dogs and cats and they try to save as much lives as possible. However, their effort is not enough.

Problem 3: the so called “TOY dogs”.

Have you ever heard of “Toy poodle” “Maltese toy”, etc? They are basically super small dogs, and because of their special popularity, their prices are also incredibly high (we are talking about 10K – 20K$, or even more). So, people in the pet industry, try to always select the smallest dogs for breeding and this is creating serious health issues to them.

So, in this article I talked about some issues of Japanese pet culture. They are many other problems that I would like to talk about in another article. But, for now, I’d like to ask you:

What do you think about it?

How is the pet culture in your country?

Finaly, I'd like to tell you that this article does not want to create hate. There are so many Japanese people that love and respect animals. So, please do not think that all of us are like this. I just wanted to create some awarness about it because this situation must be changed and I want it to change.