When you think about how to stop animal cruelty, you may give up to take an action thinking it may be hard or there won’t be much you can do.
That misunderstanding is common and sadly limits the chances to save abandoned dogs and cats.
There are many things you can do to save our furry friends.
You may see the world differently when you realize about you could also save a precious life.
Here is a list of some examples of what you may be able to do depending on your situations. Please see if you find anything you can do or may be interested in!
1) Don’t buy.
2) Do a research.
3) Talk to people!
4) Give a click! (Gooddo)
5) Sign the petition.
6) Donation
7) Volunteer!
8) Foster
9) Adopt!
Don’t buy.
As you may have read on our page “Behind the Pet Stores”, you may be supporting dishonest pet stores or breeders where animals are treated as objects by purchasing pets there.
A simple thing you could do is not to buy a pet from pet stores or breeders where animals are not treated with dignity. To avoid producing any more unsold pets, please have an option to not purchase a pet.
If the staff at a pet store comes to you and say “Isn’t he cute?” and leads you to the process of buying a puppy, you may want to doubt a few things. Has he been treated well and cared with love? Has the staff thought about the dog breed compatibility to see it he matches you, your life style, and home environment? Does the staff know where the puppy was born and how his parents look like? Does the staff know what kind of environment the pet was in before he arrived at this store? Answering these questions should not be difficult if the animals are cared there.
Please keep it in your mind that you always have an option to adopt a dog and/or cat from shelters other than purchasing at pet stores.
Do a research.
In Japan, there are over 100,000 dogs and cats put down for legal animal culling. However if those people who buy dogs and cats at pet stores adopt them instead of purchasing, we would no longer need animal culling system.
Why are there so many of them put down every year? What are the reasons that pet owners give up their pets and bring to high kill shelters? How many of those actually get the second chance to get adopted?
There are actually many people who would have preferred to adopt a dog or cat if they knew that there are many adoptable pets available.
Knowing about these would change how we think and act.
If you find a stray dog or cat, do you know who to call for help? How they treat the strays depends on where you contact such as shelters run by government or animal welfare organizations because of the difference between the law of dogs and cats. How is it different? If anything interests you, please try to find the answer. It could be the first step of animal welfare action. Just so you know what to do in case of emergency, looking up about any shelter near you is also recommended.
Talk to People!
How are animals really treated daily at government-run shelters and why and how are many dogs and cats put down? If you know about it, please share the story and your opinion with people around you.
There are many adoption and charity events held for people including children and seniors in many areas. The more people know about it, the more furry lives saved directly or indirectly. Sharing on SNS is also a great way to support animal welfare actions.
The Internet has made it easy for people to get information about pretty much everything now; however, it’s also difficult to figure our which one is true or wrong. At government-run shelters, our tax is used to cover all the expenses including the gas used to put dogs and cats down. Does the local shelter in your area use tax for reducing the number of animal culling such as giving kids classes of “Dignity of life” or a tour at a shelter as enlightenment activity? If you are interested, you could always give them a call, and that itself may change their perspective of citizen.
If they are devoted to animal welfare activities, they will be happy to answer your questions.
gooddo
“gooddo” is a social good platform where you may choose any of over 100 non-profit organizations to support for FREE. The system is as easy as one click a day or “”LIKE” the page of the organization you would like to support. Either action would give the organization points randomly chosen from 10 to 1,000 points. Each of the organizations sets their goal starting as low as $3 = 3,000 points and they get the fund by achieving their goal.
You may visit gooddo’s website from any devices connected to the internet, and there are many animal welfare organizations registered. It’s easy and free, everybody!
signing the petitions
“Change.org” is a petition website where you could start campaigns or sign the petitions to support others’. You may visit their website to search for campaigns, and your name, email address, the name of your country, zip code are needed to sign online. You may also leave a comment or share on Facebook or other SNS accounts to spread the voice.
Donations
You may donate by visiting the animal welfare organization’s website; however, there are also fundraising platforms such as JAPANGIVING and READYFOR. There are a lot of organizations and individuals registered with the idea for their projects and the amount of the fund they need. The donors get a gift for making a donation. The organizations and individuals get the fund if they achieve the set amount within the time given or all donations would be refunded to the donors. You may be surprised to hear that the dog run shelter in Osaka, animal welfare shelter in Miyazaki, and the animal shelter in Iwate all got the fund on READYFOR.
Another way to support animal welfare organizations is to buy things on a wish list on amazon.com. Depends on the organization, they list up things they need or are short on stocks. That way we know what exactly could be a help for them rather than sending things that you guessed. It is different from donating money. The price range vary so you may choose from foods, treats, toys, diapers and/or others that you can afford.
There are also places where accept charity goods such as stamps, books, and clothes. It is always recommended to visit their website or contact the organization to make sure you are sending something they need.
Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteering at animal shelters and organizations provide dogs with needed exercise and socialization, clean the kennels, play with dogs and cats, help at adoption events, etc. Depends on the shelter, the number of volunteer staff would be limited and/or may have certain requirements to get involved.
If you have a free time and are interested in helping as a volunteer, please find a local shelter or organization. Most of them will explain what exactly you will be doing and how to treat animals.
The animals at shelters were either gave up by their owners or lost them. Some may be traumatized from their experience with the previous owners. In that case, please be patient with the dog or cat until they eventually start trusting human, you, again. The reason for being a volunteer staff may vary. Some say that they wanted to help animals, and others may say that they need to walk for their health or just wanted to play with animals.
If that’s something you may be interested in, please contact your local animal shelters.
Fostering
Fostering is to take care of a dog, cat, or more than one of them for a limited time. There are organizations where they provide medical fees and/or food. For more information, please contact your local animal shelter.
There are always full of stray animals or pre-owned pets brought to a shelter of the animal organizations or rescue groups everyday. On top of that, some of them go to the government-run shelter in their area to rescue more. The number of dogs or cats are limited depends on the shelters space. This means that even though there are 20 dogs all friendly and adoptable, if there is a space for only 5, then 15 of them would be put down.
However, the fostering system could save these 15 by providing their temporary homes. If you cannot have a pet for a life time but could take care of one for a limited time, please think about the opportunity you have to foster.
If you are willing to help animals but cannot adopt or foster, there are other systems called Foster Parent System and Sponsor System. These allow you to choose the specific dog or cat that you would like to support that you send the monthly donation for. Some places give you the permission to visit the sponsored animal anytime while the shelter is opened to play as long as you want. Other places may send you cards with pictures of the sponsored animal.
Adoption
“If you have a pet right now, the most important thing you could do is to take care of it for the rest of its life.” by a director of an animal shelter in Tokyo
In Japan, one of the biggest problems has been pet owners giving up their pets since all of the animals that end up at animal shelters were previously owned or are the descendants of those.
Adopt one and save two.
Adopting a dog or cat from a shelter makes a room for another one. If you are thinking to get a pet, please see our page of “Before adopting” to think well about what it is to have a pet and so on.
The following information is the actual examples of how to adopt a pet in Japan.
1) Adopting at the local government-run animal shelter
2) Adopting at nonprofit animal organizations or rescue groups
3) Adopting at adoption events
You may find the information of adoptable dogs and cats on shelters’ websites. The requirements including the age limit for adopting a pet depends on shelters. If you find a dog/cat you like on the picture of their website, please contact and tell them about it. Most of them require for you to visit them for the interview where they ask about your life style, home environment, and other things to see if the breed, age, personality and more of the dog/cat is good match for you or not.
The life expectancy of the average dog and cat is about 14 years but the pet abandonment by their owners is one big problem in Japan. To make sure that the owners take care of their pets for the rest of its lives, the staff at animal shelters may give you the advice of which one would be a good match for you and your lifestyle.
Before officially adopting a pet, you usually have a trial period that allows you to take the dog or cat home for a week or more to see it everything works out. It is important to adopt and save as many animals as we can; however, it is also important to think about the home environment, matching, and requirements very well. Please, never push yourself to adopt when you are still not sure about all these things but welcome one when you are ready for sure.