YOKOHAMA — Kanagawa Prefecture is struggling to maintain its no-kill report for shelter cats that has been working since 2014 because the COVID-19 pandemic-driven demand for home companions is slowing down.
When this reporter visited the Kanagawa prefectural animal welfare middle within the metropolis of Hiratsuka in mid-September, a lot of cats have been saved there, some inside cages, with little area left unoccupied. While the middle’s capability is meant to be about 90 cats most for acceptable care, the variety of felines saved there has hovered between 170 and 190 since across the summer season of 2022.
“We’re short-staffed, and typically employees members not answerable for taking good care of the cats should reply. In actuality, we’re barely managing,” stated Etsuko Hiroi, a employee on the middle’s welfare and coaching division.
One of the the reason why the variety of shelter cats on the middle has remained excessive is believed to be that fewer folks now need to undertake the animals after the “stay-at-home demand” pushed by the pandemic has calmed down.
The variety of felines on the middle shot as much as 250 at one level after it took in 130 cats from a hoarding scenario in 2021. But because it was in the course of the pandemic, many individuals needed to undertake, and the determine dropped to about 100.
As pandemic-related restrictions have been lifted, nevertheless, folks’s curiosity in preserving pets dwindled. About 270 cats have been adopted from the middle in 2022, half of the quantity recorded the 12 months earlier than. Hiroi stated, “As folks have gained extra alternatives to exit, we’re seeing fewer adoption numbers.”
The Kanagawa Prefectural Government eliminated tools to place animals down when the animal welfare middle was renovated in 2019 to shift the place right into a facility to make it possible for they survive. If the variety of shelter cats continues to develop, nevertheless, there are fears that the middle can have no alternative however to start out contemplating killing the animals.
As the variety of potential adoptions stays low, the prefectural authorities is engaged on efforts to maintain down the variety of cats which are left behind. The prefecture subsidizes the spay and neuter cost for individuals who have difficulties developing with the money and conducts patrol actions with native public well being facilities over potential hoarding instances.
“Cats reside for round 20 years. As an obligation of a pet proprietor, I hope folks will suppose laborious about their very own circumstances and livelihoods earlier than they resolve to maintain an animal,” Hiroi pleaded.
(Japanese authentic by Daisuke Makino, Yokohama Bureau)
