Efforts by veterinarians are under way in Japan to reduce the need to euthanize stray cats and dogs abandoned by people who purchased them during the country's pandemic-driven pet ownership boom.

The veterinarians are conducting inexpensive spaying and neutering programs to address the problem of an increasing number of stray animals in Japan's cities, with the pets abandoned by irresponsible owners now reproducing at alarming rates, including uncared for animals that die on their own right after they are born.

Veterinarians Miyuki Daimon, 42, and her husband Masaaki, 38, operate Mobile Vet Office, an animal hospital in Ebetsu, Hokkaido.

In mid-January, an animal protection group brought in a female cat of about 4 or 5 months old. After Miyuki injects the cat with anesthesia and places it on the operating table, she performs the procedure and sews up a small incision in about 40 minutes.

Photo taken on Feb. 18, 2022, shows veterinarians Miyuki Daimon (L), and husband Masaaki of the Mobile Vet Office in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, holding up two cats after they were sterilized. (Kyodo)

In addition to working at the hospital, the couple visits various regions to sterilize cats and dogs. They sometimes handle as many as 40 to 50 operations per visit.

The couple opened the hospital in 2017 and operated on some 1,600 cats and dogs in 2020 and more than 2,000 in 2021, including those outside Ebetsu. Stray cats and dogs are brought to them by animal protection groups and people who find them hanging around their homes. After the surgeries, the animal groups look for owners.

Each surgery costs 4,400 yen to 7,700 yen, roughly one-third the price charged by regular animal hospitals. Since there is no way to conduct post-op, follow-ups on strays, surgical incisions are kept at just 1-centimeter or less to reduce the animal's pain.

"With inexpensive operations, we hope to create an environment where people can help reduce the number of stray cats," Miyuki said.

A person involved in animal protection said, "We want to expand the humane treatment of animals to do away with such unfortunate cases."

According to the Environment Ministry, the killing of cats and dogs is used as a last resort to prevent issues in communities, such as the spread of infectious diseases or problems with their waste.

With improved measures by local communities, the number of cats being killed has been on a downward trajectory, with 27,107 in fiscal 2019 and 19,705 in fiscal 2020.

Many local governments have taken countermeasures, including offering partial financial aid for sterilizations.


Related coverage:

FEATURE: Pet food makers eating up wild game meat as demand falls at restaurants

Dog trainer installs "poop posts" to make city more pet friendly

Animal rights becomes key issue in Japan's general election


For example, the Kobe city office fully finances spaying and neutering procedures of stray cats. But there are cases where measures are halted when budgets dry up, or there is no system available to continue the operations.

According to the Japan Pet Food Association, the number of newly bred cats in one year from October 2019 rose 16 percent from the prior year, due in part to demand from people looking for companionship while stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I am afraid there are people who began to keep cats without giving it much thought and later abandoned them," Miyuki said.

Consequently, in June, the government will implement a legal revision to the cruelty to animals law to make it mandatory that cats and dogs are fitted with microchips containing their owner's details.

Inagaki Animal Hospital in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, has sterilized some 40,000 stray cats at a low cost. Masaharu Inagaki, 37, head of the hospital, visits its branches in Fukushima, Ibaraki, Gunma, and Chiba prefectures, once a month for the surgeries. "The farther from cities, the fewer hospitals there are that offer sterilization procedures," he said.

Inagaki operated on more than 100 animals in one case involving a cat owner.

"Many cat owners don't know the potent fertility of cats. They should be prepared to take care of them all through their life after organizing their (spaying and neutering) surgeries," Inagaki said.