A record low of 43,227 dogs and cats were euthanized at public health centers and similar facilities across the nation in fiscal 2017, dropping below 50,000 for the first time, the Environment Ministry announced Thursday.
The number comprises 8,362 dogs and 34,865 cats. The number of such dogs and cats has drastically decreased over the last decade, falling from almost 300,000 in fiscal 2008. A ministry official said that efforts by local governments and animal welfare organizations to promote the adoption of ownerless dogs and cats have been effective.
The ministry also said 56,814 dogs and cats were returned to their original owners, or adopted by new owners via local governments or animal rights organizations after they were taken in by public health centers or the like. This figure comprises 29,954 dogs and 26,860 cats.
Of the accepted dogs and cats, including those that were euthanized, the owners of 89 percent of the dogs and 82 percent of the cats were unknown. The remaining dogs and cats were mostly handed over by their owners.
Mina Mizukoshi, an associate professor at Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University who is familiar with pet-related problems, attributes the drastic decrease to the public's growing awareness of euthanization and the adoption of pet animals.
"I hope governments will promote measures to make both pets and pet owners happy, for example, by controlling the reproduction of pet animals to prevent the increase of ownerless pets," Mizukoshi said.
The decrease is partly due to a revision in the Welfare and Management of Animals Law in 2012 to newly stipulate that local governments can refuse to accept dogs and cats from their owners, which naturally decreased the number of accepted animals, said Kunihisa Sagami, 58, director of the Doubutukikin, a public interest incorporated foundation based in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture. Doubutukikin has promoted sterilization surgery on a large scale to help eliminate the euthanization of pets.
"Sterilization surgery should be expanded," Sagami stressed.
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