The Island Cats

lyrajean

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I've heard of that island before. I think their PR went up after the tsunami which was in the same region of Japan. Sounds cute, but...

Unfortunately they are just taking advantage of a almost universal problem in Japan of stray/feral cats and a reluctance to spay/neuter. the size of the island probably limits the possible growth of the population there but in Okinawa there are at least as many street cats or mura neko. People like them and feed them, some cats are even considered "pets" but they are not altered nor allowed to live inside with the families. Seems odd considering this is the country of maneki neko and Hello Kitty.

Animal control in Okinawa round up over 11,500 cats annually, only 900 find homes or are returned to homes. The rest are gassed after 5 days. I picked up 4 orphaned stray kittens. Aya was lucky enough to come and live with me the others I vet-ed and had adopted out through OOARS.

The Japan Cat Network and OOARS are the only two organizations I know of doing something about the problem and practicing TNR in Japan, both organizations were founded and are run by foreign residents of Japan.
 
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