Outside Frames? - To visit our website click here - Inside Frames? - HOME - You are Here   >>> The dark Side >>> Japanese Dogs >>> Updates

驥崎ｦ・隱­繧薙〒縺上・縺輔!
Stop Press - Please read this!

Updates from Osaka - 大阪からの更新

Click to go to them in order - 1st dated 30th January 2007.  Scroll to see the latest first.

30/01 - 06/02 - 07/02 - 08/02 - 10/02 - 14/02 - 17/02 - 18/02 - 19/02 - 20/02 - 21/02 - 22/02 - 24/02 - 25/02 - 26/02 - 27/02 - 28/02 - 1/03 - 2/03 - 3/03 - 4/03 - 5/03 - 6/03 - 7/03 -

Court Ruling

Information has been relayed to us from Nangu San of Wan Life saying that while he doesn't have all the details, the Osaka Court today ruled that none of the dogs are to be destroyed until after the results of the next set of blood tests  (the third set) are obtained on the 16th March.

We are also informed that the attitude of the officials has changed and they now seem willing to listen, they also actually seem to be really taking good care of the dogs with three vets in attendance yesterday.

Further Legal Action

From a friend in Japan

Gradually more people are starting to speak out, now that they know that numerous people have strong feelings on the matter.  I do hope Ark Angels will be able to plead the case in a convincing way.  When I talked to them on the telephone they sounded as if they could but I wonder if it will be sufficient to move the mountain.

It is quite surprising that the legal system has moved so quickly to hold a hearing - this could be taken positively, i.e., that there is sympathy for the dogs or one could look at the other way, that they want to get rid of the problem as soon as possible.   Let us hope it is not the latter.

If I were the Prefecture officials and planned to destroy the dogs, I would have made all the necessary preparations and would be ready to move immediately the next tests are received - which is today or tomorrow.

Maybe insisting on more tests by outside vets would stall this a little.  After all they don't seem to have taken the possibility of false negatives into consideration.

All is being handled with polite deference by Prefecture officials and the dogs seem to be getting improved care and attention.

The problem is that many of them are still being penned up in their cages without exercise or much human contact.

Volunteers continue to monitor the premises from the outside and report that conditions are still far from Humane.

From a friend in Japan

There is not much news to report – it is much, much too quiet for my liking, the the calm before the storm.

On the 2nd the negative dogs had blood samples taken for another test and the results of this are expected on Tuesday or Wednesday.  It appears that none of the positive dogs are going to be retested, in spite of the fact that there is quite a high possibility of false positives occurring, I read somewhere that this can be as high as 50%.

I have a feeling that once the results of the test are available that the Prefecture will move with extremely quickly to destroy all the dogs that have tested positive; I don’t think the Prefecture officials have changed their decision to destroy the dogs because of one demonstration, most likely they are going to do destroy all of them at the one time rather than in two lots.

Perhaps the court ruling on Wednesday will prevent this. Hopefully many will turn up at the hearing to support Ark Angels.

Ark Angels rescue group have discussed  the Osaka Prefecture decision to slaughters the Brucella positive dogs with their lawyers. Ark Angels registered a strong protest against this decision as well as the custody of all the dogs.

Osaka District Court have granted a court hearing which will hear both sides of the argument, before the court renders a decision on the slaughter.

The Osaka district court served Osaka Prefecture a summons today.

The court sent this summons with unprecedented speed, because they understood the dogs have little time. 

We all hope that the Osaka district court will bring great news for the dogs.

Translated to English by Akiko San

ブルセラ犬陽性犬の処分決定に関し、当方弁護士と相談の上、裁判所に所有権の主張と殺処分決定禁止の仮処分を申立てした。

結果、大阪地方裁判所は仮処分決定の前に双方の意見を聞く「審尋」を開く決定をした。

申立人　動物愛護団体「アーク・エンジェルズ」代表　林　俊彦と、被申立人　大阪府知事　斎藤房江　の両名から事情を聞いて仮処分決定をします。

Today - The Humane Society International, based in the USA, contacted Border Collie Rescue with an open letter of support for the various organisation involved in fighting for the lives of these dogs in Osaka.

To read this letter, click here.

The situation in Osaka still seems to be stable at this date with no reported advances or problems since the February 28th report, however the dogs are still living in the same squalid conditions, although - perhaps - greater efforts are being made to the care in which they are being medicated and treated.

There are rumours that the next scheduled time for the Prefecture to execute the dogs is set for 6th March so be prepared, watch carefully and do not be surprised if they quickly do something else.

Today - Border Collie Rescue sent and open letter of protestation to the Osaka Prefecture Rescue Committee for Brucella Canis.

To read this letter, please click here.

The situation in Osaka seems to be stable at this date and there seems to be no changes since yesterdays report.

A major problem in communications is the air of secrecy surrounding the activities of the Prefecture officials. This does not necessarily mean they are hiding something but it does incline an onlooker to become suspicious.

We are informed that after the stand off yesterday, the employees of the Prefecture are "teinen ni" - politely, respectfully, conscientiously caring for the dogs today.  But we don't know what will happen tomorrow. The consensus is that they will probably not make an announcement when they decide to move next time and anything could happen to these dogs without prior notice.

Yesterday, the Humane Society International, which is part of the Humane Society of the United States, contacted Border Collie Rescue with a request for more information. They said "We have received over 900 emails from concerned citizens,  regarding the Brucellosis outbreak in an abandoned puppy mill in Osaka , Japan . All of these seem to have originated from a plea on your website. Thank you for making us aware of this situation".

We have provided them with the contact details of the organisations in Japan who are trying to deal with the situation and they have advised us that "We have been following this issue closely since this morning".

Border Collie Rescue would like to thank the HSI and all those who took the trouble to send messages to the HSI and to other organisations in support of the plight of these dogs and beg all who read these pages to continue to spread the word, involve others and send messages to the Japanese authorities in charge of this situation, prevailing on them to change their mind and give proper care and attention to these dogs rather than apply euthanasia.

We remind you all that there is an email link on the main page of this section which can also be accessed by clicking here.

We have had some enquiries from people in Japan regarding the breeders premises where the dogs are being held. It seems that some individuals wish to attend in person and support the organisations who are seeking remission for these dogs.

The breeder in this case is a Ms Hisato Nagata. She operated with a staff of 10 from premises at - 986 Higashi Sakamoto-machi. Izumi-city, Osaka, which is where the dogs are still being held. She started operation in April 1970 but only seems to have registered last year. Her website still exists and can be viewed at - http://www.dog-nagata.com/

Crude English translations of this website can be obtained by pasting the URL into Babel Fish translation services at - http://babelfish.altavista.com/

This morning the Osaka Prefecture representatives and vets turned up at the premises to kill the dogs that have tested positive to Brucellosis.

The intention was that the dogs selected to be killed would be removed to a depot belonging to the defense guard, located close to the breeders premises, by truck.

Once there, and on a secure property, they could be disposed of in relative privacy without interference from people and the media who argued that there was absolutely no logical reason that they should be killed other than that the cost of saving them would be more expensive to the prefecture.

Upon attending the breeders premises, the Prefecture officials were met by a delegation from Matatabi Veterinary Team with many supporters from other organisations, the media and the general public who informed the Officials that they would be blockading the breeders premises to prevent the removal of the dogs for slaughter.

After some discussion the Officials withdrew, however they have since announced their determination to come back and carry out the death sentence on the dogs. In the meantime, due to lack of care from the officials and a ban on the volunteer vets and volunteer helpers from attending the dogs, they still continue to die.

It should be remembered that the disease that some of them are infected with is not normally life threatening and fatalities are rare. It should also be remembered that some of the dogs that have died were tested 'Negative', meaning they were not infected. We are told that one of these negative deaths was the Border Collie pup pictured in a previous post below.

When questioned the Prefecture responds with a stock answer- "The Kyuen Hobun has decided". Kyen Hobun  means - Rescue Headquarters* -  and they have decided that in spite of the alternatives and offers of free labour, materials and other facilities, it will not change its mind.

*(This is obviously a new interpretation of the word 'rescue' unknown to the civilised world.)

Could it be that Japanese progress in robotics has advanced faster than we think and they are now using androids in the civil service?

Meanwhile, in Scotland, a man has killed a Border Collie by cutting off its tail with a knife - he has not yet been caught. This goes to show that even in the UK, random acts of immense and stupid cruelty will occur. Of course, that was the work of a lunatic - a sick person - not the rational human being you would expect a public official to be.

The dogs are dying in numbers.  The ones I wrote about earlier, the dachshund and the Jack Russell have both died; the golden retriever has eaten but is not well and the corgi is extremely weak.

There must be something wrong, surely they shouldn’t be dying from antibiotics.

I just got off the telephone with a Mr. Maeda at the Prefecture office and he confirmed that the dogs testing positive will be euthanised tomorrow. I lodged a complaint and told him to look up the meaning of euthanasia as this implies that the animals are being killed for their own benefit and this is not the case.

Fat good that it will do. He told me over and over again that "The Kyuen Hobun has decided."

I sent Nangu San an e-mail as I couldn't get through to his phone - he is calling people but is getting the same reaction as me - it has been decided. It is like talking to a stone wall. The self defense forces have a base right opposite the site and they are going to truck the dogs there and do it out of sight of the volunteers, cameras, etc.

It is still too early in the day for much information from the volunteers to be available on the blog sites but I found one report on the site of one of the women who usually supplies accurate information.  She writes basically a report of the observations of a Ms. K.   Ms. K, was in the employ of the breeder for a number of months before the outbreak was reported and has continued to help care for the dogs as a volunteer ever since, she has, therefore, been at the site almost every day for over 6 months.  I think it was Ms. K who contacted a number of the rescue organisations, the only one responding being Wan Life.

The observations of Ms. K are as follows:-

Many of the dogs were originally kept three or four to a cage but the only dogs that have been tested positive are the dogs which were kept in the same cages as bitches that had aborted their pups.

Dogs which shared the same cage with positive dogs which had not aborted have so far tested negative.

With regard to the large dogs which had not been caged and were running loose, the dogs which had been bred are positive and of the others only the ones which had contact with aborted pups and their secretions have tested positive.

My comment, while this is obviously not a scientific experiment, it would appear that the secretions of infected animals are not as much to be feared as the authorities would have us believe.

The volunteers are all still banished from the premises but a large number of people turned up.  They asked the Prefecture staff if the border collie that had been sick was okay and were told he was well.  Later Mr. Takeo Shirotani, a politician from Osaka arrived talked to the Prefecture staff.  Afterwards he talked to the volunteers and they asked him to ask about the border collie on their behalf.    He did so and was informed that the dog had died.   He asked permission for Ms. K to enter the building for a short time and this was granted provided that he accompanied her.   In other words, they very effectively limited  the time she was allowed to stay.

According to Ms. K, a dachshund, a Jack Russell, a corgi and a golden retriever all appeared quite ill, especially the Jack Russell.

Mr. Hayashi from Ark Angels hinted it yesterday but now the volunteers are saying quite openly that they feel that the dogs are being given incorrect amounts of medicine.    To the best of their knowledge the dogs have never been weighed, therefore, it is impossible to know the amount of medicine each dog should receive and this is being measure by eye.

It has been repeated by the authorities time and time again that all the infected dogs will be destroyed.  If this is the case, what is the purpose of giving them medicine and why has this not been done?    Leaving them in such close proximity only increases the risk that negative dogs will become infected, the authorities are aware of this and one can only be suspicious of their intentions.

Finally, regarding improving the living conditions of all the dogs, even if the dogs cannot be moved I told the Prefecture officials that it would be a simple matter to rent mobile accommodation for them.  In Japan every building site has at least one temporary building for the use of the workers and as an office.  Unused ones are not in short supply and they insulated, have electric wiring and can be rented quite cheaply by the week or month.  The are transported by truck and simply lowered unto the ground.  Judging from the photographs of the site, there is ample space for a number of these and the use of them could ensure that the positive dogs could be completely isolated. I am sure there are companies in the area who rent them out and it might even be possible that one or more of these companies would provide them free of charge, either because they sympathise with the predicament of the dogs or for the good publicity that they would receive.    However, none of this had occurred to the Prefecture officials and even if it had one cannot too hopeful that they would act.

It is terribly hard to get people to put anything on the web, after all the only Japanese people who are doing anything are Wan Life.   Ark Angels, have only a one line update on their site saying that they visited the site along with the politician and Dr. Yamaguchi and it links to two pictures of Dr. Yamaguchi clinic!   So Ark Angels are also running into the Prefectural stone wall and finding how frustrating it is.    According to Nangu San they have asked Wan Life to come back and work together.   Nangu San seems to be going to the site every day and doing what he can, they are just not posting the information on their site, the same applies to Ark Angels.

I telephone the Prefecture office again this evening and spoke to Mr. Nakata and the conversation was basically the same as the one with Ms. Yuki yesterday.  The dogs will be destroyed, the authorities have spoken.

I was very upset and was very rude to him, and I am not proud of that.   He continued to be polite and pleasant but I have spoken to him before and he sounded much more subdued on this occasion. The situation is not of his making and, more than likely, he is not involved in the decision making but is taking all the abuse.  Nevertheless it is very frustrating trying to talk to anyone from the Prefecture office as “it has been decided” and there is no redress.  He did inform me that the dogs had not been destroyed today but as they are making preparation it is only a matter of time.

I also have been trying to get as much information as possible about the disease and my finding were the same as yours.  The most positive I found was from the university of Okalahoma where they had a paper that said while it was very difficult to treat, that after treatment it would even be possible to breed the dogs again.   This would suggest that while a cure may not be 100% it may be fairly risk free and if the dogs were all neutered the risks are again decreased.  As you say it can be transmitted by contact with urine but apparently in the environment this risk disappears rapidly.     But no matter what argument is put forward the response is  “it has been decided.”

The Osaka Prefecture home page states that there is minimal risk to human beings.  This is obviously for the benefit of the human beings that are worried about the human beings.  To the people who are worried about the dogs, there is a risk to humans and this takes priority.

The Osaka site also states that a percentage of dogs in Japan have the disease and I have asked that if this is so, are they going to introduce a test for all dogs in Japan?   They are not.

I have said to them dozens of times that I am happy that I do not have to make the decision about the dogs but that they cannot be forgiven for the way they are being treated.  How can we ever force breeders to treat their animals properly if Osaka Prefecture, the owner of the dogs, continue to treat them in exactly the same way?  The only answer one gets is that they “will do their best.”  while we are waiting for them to do their best the dogs are in danger of dying of old age.

It looks certain that the positive dogs will be destroyed but let us hope that they will not somehow “discover” that all the dogs are positive.  

They wouldn’t give me details of the response they were receiving from the public, only that various opinions were being expressed.  Read this as meaning that it is almost all objecting to their response to the situation.  There also seem to be quite a lot of mail from abroad as Mr. Nakata wouldn’t give me figures – if there was very little he would have gladly told me so.

Please keep up the pressure.

There appears to have been a lot of action yesterday.  Briefly. the Prefecture agreed to allow 6 dogs in critical condition to be hospitalised  but apparently after the volunteers left for the evening a number of these dogs were returned to breeders.   One of them, a little black cocker spaniel died shortly thereafter.  Accompanying picture, after
he had just been given a trim a few days ago.

A Dr. Yamaguchi who is volunteering to help and has expressed his opinion that it is not necessary to destroy the dogs and he was allowed to treat some of the dogs on the premises.  Picture accompanying of Dr. Yamaguchi
negotiating with the Prefecture officials on the opposite side of a rope with a "No admittance" sign.

Is it possible that this is the first time a vet who is not associated with the Prefecture has seen the dogs?

According to one of the volunteer blogs, later in the evening she received a telephone call to inform her that the volunteers would not be required from toda