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Since Japan has no shelters, people wanting to get rid of their pet or who can no longer keep it, are faced with a dilemma. It is against their Buddhist beliefs to kill a living thing so they would never take their pet to be euthanized by a vet. Besides most vets refused to euthanize any animal, even though it may in in pain and suffering. If they take it to the hokensho they know it will be killed, which is then on their conscience. So they choose the only other option and abandon it, falsely hoping that it will survive on its own or that maybe some kind person will take it in.
There are also unscrupulous people who prey on their guilt feeling by offering to take unwanted pets, for a fee, and find them a new home. They put flyers on utility poles and in mail boxes with no address, only a mobile telephone number. You would think that would send the alarm bells ringing in most people's mind but Japanese can be incredibly gullible.(*see Japanese character below) Often the exchange is carried out on a road side or at a highway rest area, money, about 30,000 yen ( 250 US $) exchanged for a cat or dog. If the dealer picks up ten animals a day, he has a nice little business and he make extra money by selling the animals on to laboratories or, even if he just dumps them somewhere, he hasn't lost out.
Japanese are against the idea of neutering, because they feel it is going against nature or unnatural, but faced with a litter of puppies or kittens they have to do something. Usually they take them and dump them in mountains or on riverbanks with perhaps food, which newlyborn cannot eat. People feel they've done the right thing by returning these animals to nature. But nature rapidly takes its course. Either they die of exposure or dehydration or are pecked to death by crows. Of course you can guess what will happen if any do survive.
*It is said that Japanese have difficulty in connecting cause and effect. So when they dump animals, they cannot imagine or they don't stop to think what the consequence will be. Likewise they also lack the ability to understand something unless it is directly experienced. A dog chained in the hot sun without water or shade is something unrelated to them unless you put them in that situation and ask them how THEY feel.
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