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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 today (the 21st) on.    The reason given that there had been trouble between the volunteers on the 19th and 20th.  She said that there were a number of dogs that were very ill and would they be treated and was told that 2 vets would be coming the following day.

The volunteers are asking anyone who lives in the area and has some time to go today to the breeders, to bring with them video cameras, cameras, voice recorders, etc., and try to defend the dogs.

I contacted Mr. Nangu this morning and asked if the dogs were being destroyed today and he said he was not aware that this was the case, and that the volunteers had been asked to leave as tempers were getting frayed and that this was for a few days to allow them to cool off.

It is difficult to know what is happening but I think it is safe to presume that it is not good.

I have checked with Ark Angels site a number of times today and there are no updates, one would think that if they had have been able to achieve anything at the meeting yesterday they would have posted it.

The way the volunteers have been used is shabby in the extreme; they have been used as a source of unpaid labour.  Can it be acceptable to use volunteers to care for the animals, give them hope that the dogs will be treated in hospital and then a few hours later return the animals without treatment?  The could be considered "sagi" in Japanese, it English it is simply "fraud."

Yesterday, I was told that Osaka Prefecture did not have a budget to care for the dogs as they did not want to use tax payers money for this and that they are asking for donations.  I wonder who is going to donate the money to pay the expenses of destroying the animals?

The young Border Collie pup opposite is one of the dogs that tested positive and is therefore likely to be destroyed. Only a baby and so far his life has been miserable, confined and unhappy.  Trapped by uncaring authorities and his life soon to be ended by those who are responsible for his care.

This is a shortened transcript of a long telephone conversation with a Ms. Yuki (?) of the Osaka Prefecture which has left our 'interviewer' with the feeling they have been talking to someone charming, polite, but nevertheless, immovable.

1.  What will happen to the dogs that have tested positive? - The dogs which have tested positive will be destroyed come hell or high water - the "Kyuen Honbu," (Rescue Headquarters) has decided.    

2.  When will the mass destruction take place?  - The Rescue Headquarters have not yet reached a decision on this.  

Why not?  - They are discussing methods and making preparations.   They are considering which method will be the most "raku" (comfortable) one for the dogs.

3.  What is the position regarding the dogs that had to be re-tested and gave a negative result? -  If the re-testing was the result of contamination of the blood sample, and they tested negative on the second occasion this will be consider as a negative result.   If a dog tested positive and the blood sample had not been contaminated the dog is positive even if it later tests negative.

4.  Why do the dogs have to be destroyed even if they tested positive?  - There is (a) a risk that they will infect other dogs and (b) they might infect people.  

5.   The population of the USA is 250,000,000 and only approximately 10-20 people contract Brucella Canis each year, this not an acceptable risk?   - There is a risk of humans being infected.

6.  But there is also a risk of you or me getting the flu tomorrow and dying or of being knocked down by a car.   - There is a risk of the dogs infecting people.

7.   What will happen the negative dogs?  - They will be re-tested and if eventually declared negative will be rehomed.

8.  When will they be tested?  - The Rescue Headquarters has not reached a decision.

9.  Reaching the correct  decision on what to do with the dogs is difficult but Osaka Prefecture has owned the dogs for over 5 weeks and have not done anything about the cruel conditions in which they are being kept.  Why have the dogs not been moved to suitable accommodation?  - We are trying to find suitable accommodation but this is very difficult and people living in the neighbourhood would be concerned about having them in the area and would have to agree to them being there?

10.  Why can the negative dogs not be moved?  - None of the dogs can be moved?  Is this not a contradiction? Why are you looking for different accommodation for them?

11.  Why was it possible to allow 6 dogs to be hospitalised today?  - This was an exception and will not happen in the future.

12.  Why could it not have been done sooner? -  It was not necessary sooner, it is probably that their condition is the result of side effects from the medicine.  

I don’t remember exactly how the subject came up but she said that there were similar breeding establishments in America.  I replied yes, there were, and also in my country, Ireland, where the situation is very bad, especially for Greyhounds.  However, Ireland and Osaka Prefecture can not be compared, Osaka has a large population and is extremely rich and there is no excuse for Osaka not to provide for the dogs.  - She replied that they had no budget and were asking for donations on their web-site as it would not be right, and that many people would not want, tax used for this purpose.

At that point I exploded and said that I would have no objection to my tax being used for this purpose and that it was already being used for much worse purposes, even in Osaka, e.g., bribes, lining of pockets with public funds, etc.    I told her that Wan Life had been able to find a suitable place to keep 100 of the small dogs so why did they not give them back to Wan Life.  - She didn’t seem to have been prepared for that question and didn’t have an immediate reply and only said that Wan Life had not asked for them – their site says differently.  

I asked, if they couldn’t move the dogs why didn’t they rent some of those temporary building that they have on building sites. -  No one had ever thought of this or, more likely, ever bother to think about it.

I asked who was looking after the dogs.  - She said, the volunteers are.  Which volunteers? - The volunteers.  Which volunteers? - The ones that were introduced by Wan Life.  You mean Wan Life’s volunteers?  - No, the ones that were introduced by Wan Life.

Why was Wan Life forced to withdraw? - They were not forced to withdraw.  

Are Ark Angles taking over from Wan Life?  -  The “Kyuen Hobun” is in charge of the dogs.

Ark Angles had a meeting with the Prefecture today, was it decided that they would take over? - I don’t know what was decided but the “Kyuen Honbu” is in charge.

(At some stage of the conversation she did say that the laws had to be changed).

The conversation continued to go round in circles and basically we know little more than what we did before.  

The Ark Angels site has no updates from today, only the information from yesterday that I already sent you, so we don’t really know if Ark Angels will be able to do anything.  

One of the volunteers has just posted a thank you to AA San (I presume Ark Angels San) for getting 6 dogs hospitalized and an additional one, a Shi Tzu that had not eaten or drunk water for some days, treated by the vet.  A few hours after receiving one injection this dog drank water on its own.

I am exhausted after a half hour conversation and frankly, don’t know how Wan Life battled on for so long.

Wan Life has just announced that they are giving up and that in the last few days two different organisations that have money and experience and are more powerful have offered to help!    I guess that is the end of the road for the dogs!   

Wan Life were there caring for the dogs before the Prefecture stepped in and possession is nine tenths of the law and now that they have gone I cannot see the Prefecture allowing anyone else in.    Unless, of course, they really do have connections.

The other possibility is that they feel, and have conveyed this to the Prefecture, that it would be best to destroy the positive dogs and save the rest.  This would be music to the ears of the people in the Prefecture office.

So today representatives from Ark Angels, a rescue organisation based in Osaka, and a vet visited the breeders. Initially they were denied permission to enter by the Prefecture officials, however, members of the press were in attendance and this probably helped as after  a great deal of negotiation they were allowed inside.    As a result of the negotiations it was agreed that  6 dogs which are in critical condition would be hospitalised.   

It was also agreed that the representatives of Ark Angels and representatives of the Prefecture will meet today, however, what the outcome of this meeting will be is difficult to say.

While one can only be grateful that the dogs which are ill will start getting treatment, it is incomprehensible why, if this can be done now, it could not have been done much sooner.   One can not be envious of the position that the authorities find themselves in; they have extremely difficult decisions to make but how can they defend their failure to provide these animals with the basic necessities for life and continue to keep them in conditions which can only be described as cruel and unnatural?  

The two organisations that have stepped in and are now trying to stop the killing of the dogs are -

Matatabi Veterinary Team

Ark Angels

It  seems that pressure is being applied by the Prefecture officials and that Wan Life is being outmaneuvered and will eventually be pushed aside.  

According to the information on the site, the organisation of the volunteers, i.e., who is going to work on which days, what they need, etc.,  has been taken out of their hands and given to someone they do not know and that from the 20th the schedule will be decided by the Prefecture, i.e., they will be there for a few days and then they will not be there.

Basically they do not have a leg to stand on. When they took over the dogs from the breeder they didn't receive any documents to say this, so when the Prefecture wants rid of them they will be made unwelcome.  

To bring you up-to-date from this end; no action has been taken by the Prefecture except that it seems that they are making it more difficult for the volunteers to work.

Three dogs, two Dachshunds and one Shi Tzu,  died since Friday.  The Shi Tzu was negative for Brucellosis, I don’t know about the other two but they received no treatment and were confined to their tiny cages.

Irrespective of one's opinion regarding the fate of the infected dogs, no animal should be kept in these conditions.   It is a very sad situation when the very officials who are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that our animals are protected deem it fit to continue to keep them, and allow them to die, in such appalling conditions.

A little bit of good news. Of the sixteen "positive" dogs that were retested, 6 of them are negative (two Border Collies included) and of the four dogs that had not been tested, two are negative. One has to be thankful for small mercies.

The bad news is that dogs are having to be rescued by the dozens every few days. Yesterday I spoke to a vet who is in the process of rescuing 100 dogs, mostly Dachshund, Labradors and Bernese, from a breeder.

This poor lady has managed to find homes for about 50 of the small ones but isn't having much luck with the Labs. I offered to foster one, she was delighted but said that she won't be able to start spaying the labs until the beginning of next month as she is currently doing three little ones a day!

There cannot be many vets like that around!

The blood tests of 16 of the positive dogs were contaminated and they are being retested so let us hope that they are negative.

Apart from that there is nothing much to report.  

In their meeting yesterday (7th February), the Osaka Prefecture Officials responsible for the care of the dogs have decided that all infected dogs will be destroyed. This will involve the euthanasia of the survivors of the 118 dogs that originally tested positive.

Although the electricity to the premises where the dogs are being kept has now been reconnected, the infected and uninfected dogs have still not been separated so the possibility of more dogs becoming infected is pretty certain.

Under the current decision, any dogs becoming infected will also be destroyed.

Anyone wishing to protest against this decision should email the prefecture before 8 am on Monday 12th February 2007, using the links provided below. Please spread the word and encourage support for Wan Life who are trying to save these dogs.

Just a quick not to let you know they are going to destroy all the infected dogs.     I expected it but now that it has been decided it really is a shock; I feel sick.  The electricity has been reconnected and now that you can see the dogs it makes it even worse.   For the volunteers it must be terrible.

The others dogs will be confined to their cages for at least another four weeks and will be tested again in two weeks.  I would imagine that a number of them will test positive at that time.

Mr. Takeshi Nangu is our contact for the Japanese rescue team 'Dog Life' who are involved in trying to care for the dogs involved in this situation - and he is in a bit of a panic.  

It seems that the Osaka Prefecture have decided suddenly, or they kept it quiet, to have their next meeting tomorrow (7th February 2007) .  At it the fate of the dogs will be decided.

He says that it is almost certain that the decision will be to destroy the infected dogs, he wasn't sure about the others.

I am not associated with Wan Life, except that I just donated a small amount of money.  They are located a long way from where I live but if they were closer I would certainly go to help them.   I have, however, talked to them on numerous occasions and they seem to be a very open, friendly, genuine and enthusiastic group of people, unlike many of the other rescue groups here.     I am sure they operate on an absolute shoe-string and one of the things that attracted me to them is that each week they actually named the donors, i.e., Mr. Smith, Tokyo on their web-site.   

The head of the organisation is a Ms. Kaori Shimada but the person who is mentioned on their home page as their contact is a Mr. Takeshi Nangu and I talk to him.   After receiving your mail this morning I contacted him and outlined its contents.  He was absolutely delighted and asked if he could mention Border Collie Rescue as an organisation that had expressed concern about the situation in Osaka Prefecture.    He also told me that they have no one who speaks English and asked me if I would help and if he could use my name of their site.  As I feel the situation is absolutely appalling  I replied in the affirmative to both these questions.  So I suppose I have become their contact!

Since Osaka Prefecture took control of the dogs Wan Life appears to have placed in a very weak position and their hands seem to be tied.  On their site they write that since Osaka Prefecture took over they, Wan Life, are no longer able to appeal directly for donations and material help and that they have to ask the Prefecture office for everything.   Buying a bottle of disinfectant is the same as ordering 100 dog houses and has to be   discussed at a meeting at the Prefecture office.    Currently, they have to rely upon personal blogs posted by the volunteers to ask for help and this is not the most effective way of appealing for help.    I don’t know why they cannot, or feel they cannot, directly appeal for help on their site but it may be they are concerned that if they become too much of a nuisance to the prefecture and cause too much embarrassment the prefecture people may just tell them all to leave.  This certainly would not be in the interests of the dogs.  I share this concern and it is one of the reasons that I would like the prefecture to be aware that they are under scrutiny, both at home and abroad.

Apparently a lot of people have responded to the blogs by telephoning the prefecture but since the prefecture took control the story has received little attention from the media and therefore, the number of people who are aware of the situation is not large.   Also I think that with the prefecture being in control people feel that donations, crates, food, etc., are not needed.    In September 580 dogs were found in another area in a state of starvation, some adult golden retrievers and English setters weighing only 8 kilograms.  The story received a lot of coverage and within a few weeks approximately 250,000 pounds had been donated and all but about 10 of the dogs have been adopted.   I am ashamed to say it but I suspect that if these dogs were dying of starvation the response would be wonderful, but the situation is different with these dogs as many of them have a disease that might, just might be transmitted to humans and they are therefore a problem and are not worthy of help.    

All the dogs are being kept in a regular house and as the breeder had stopped paying the bills the electricity and water have been cut off.    When I checked this morning these had not been reconnected.   This is unbelievable.  The volunteers have purchased plastic containers and they fill these with water at home and bring them, at lunch time they go to the local government office and get refills.     Apparently each morning a number of people come from the prefecture and their responsibility seems to be confirming that all the dogs are still there  and checking that all the cages have not been moved.

At the weekend, however, they did start giving the dogs medication but  the infected dogs still have not been separated from the non-infected ones.  Also, as one would expect in these conditions, a number of bitches are pregnant which adds to the problem.

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Border Collie Rescue is a UK based charity, working Internationally to Rescue and Re-home Border Collies and Working Sheepdogs and promote a better understanding of the breed and its Welfare.