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From May through August 2011, Takeshi Ono, chief veterinary technician at the Fukushima prefectural government, made almost daily trips to the evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
During these four months, residents in the no-go zone were allowed to briefly return home for the first time since their evacuation.
Ono would get up at 5 a.m. and go to the area in a four-ton truck. He would spend three to four hours in the off-limits zone, taking cats and dogs into custody, and then transport them to the animal shelter operated by the prefectural government in the city of Fukushima.
Ono would return to the prefectural office at around 8 p.m. after taking care of animals at the shelter. He would then do some paperwork before calling it a night. He would usually arrive home only after midnight.
The operation to rescue and protect pets left in the no-go zone was carried out by four to five two-person teams. Initially, they could secure up to some 20 animals in one day of work. But the number declined gradually. In August, the animal rescue squad couldn’t pick up any dog or cat on some days.
As the days rolled by, the pet rescue workers found dead animals more and more frequently.
Ono’s heart ached when he saw a dog lying dead by its own kennel. The dog was unleashed and could have gone anywhere it had wanted. Ono thought the dog must have died while waiting for its owner to return.
He wished he could have started the mission earlier. He was also saddened by the thought that many of the animals' lives could have been saved if a system to evacuate residents together with their pets had been established.
As the official in charge of efforts to promote the welfare of animals, Ono felt responsible for the fate of the pets left in the Fukushima no-go zone.
He decided to do what he could to improve the situation. He seized stray dogs and fed animals, which was officially banned.
The rules concerning the protection of animals by the prefectural government require all animals picked up to be taken into the shelter as a first step. But Ono sometimes broke the rules and handed pets directly to their owners at a meeting place of residents making a temporary return home, when owners strongly requested such an arrangement.
Despite his commitment to the welfare of animals, Ono postponed trying to pick up cats in the zone.
Employees of local governments have the legal power to seize stray dogs under the Rabies Prevention Law, but not other pet animals.
Ono was not certain what he should and could do to protect cats in the evacuation zone when he had no legal authority to seize them.
It was also difficult to distinguish pet cats from ownerless ones, and there were no traps for felines available. As a result, Ono was reluctant to take any action to deal with the problem of cats roaming around the area near the nuclear power plant.
Cats, however, turned out to have a greater ability to stay alive and had more propagating power than dogs. The population of cats in the no-go zone kept growing, eventually creating a serious headache for both the prefectural and central governments.
Seido Watanabe, a vet in Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, was temporarily involved in the pet rescue mission.
At that time, no trap was used to take pets into custody. The rescuers would only seize animals that approached them.
Feeling that the approach adopted to tackle the challenge was tepid and inefficient, Watanabe made a proposal directly to the Environment Ministry official serving as the contact person for the program.
The plan for the pet rescue mission said the central government should carry out the mission with the help of the Fukushima prefectural government. That meant the Environment Ministry was in charge of implementing the plan, while the actual work was done by local government employees.
Watanabe proposed to the ministry official that local residents who were acquainted with the neighborhood should be employed for the operation. He also suggested a change in the method, saying the search for pets should focus on areas cited by the pet owners who had requested a search to find and protect their animals.
Watanabe’s proposal was apparently not welcomed by the ministry official, as he was not asked to assist in the operation again.
The Environment Ministry recruited vets willing to take part in the rescue mission and compiled a list of more than 150 potential participants.
But the number of vets who actually took part in the operation was less than 20, including Watanabe. A majority of the vets on the list were never contacted.
Watanabe now wonders if the ministry was really serious about seeking the assistance of these vets.
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