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If he had a do-over, veterinarian Seido Watanabe would have moved much quicker in dealing with the pets of evacuees in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima nuclear accident.
By December 2012, the animal shelter Watanabe was in charge of in Miharu, Fukushima Prefecture, housed a record 270 cats, of which more than 100 were born after the disasters.
Because some of the animals had no human contact, the cats would strike back at their captors out of fear. That made even feeding the animals a major chore. Shelter staff had to use poles to place and remove trays from the cages.
The pets of evacuees as well as stray animals all were important to him, but Watanabe could not help but feel emptiness at times, especially when pet owners told horror stories arising from their lives as evacuees.
Watanabe and his wife, Michiko, resumed operations at their pet hospital in Koriyama on Dec. 4, 2012.
However, municipalities had different policies concerning pets.
Iitate and Iwaki banned pets at their temporary housing facilities. However, most other municipalities allowed pet owners to bring their animals, but set up special rules, such as placing all such owners in the same temporary housing building.
Problems were rampant. Temporary housing usually meant cramped quarters with thin walls. One dog owner received complaints about barking and began to think that the animal would have to be put to sleep.
Another pet owner kept giving snacks to the dog to stop it from barking. The animal quickly became obese.
A woman who had evacuated from Namie and lived by herself kept her 18-year-old dog in her car. The apartment that had been provided for evacuees did not allow pets. The woman kept the engine running so the air conditioner would be on around the clock. She looked after her pet until it died in February.
Because many pet owners faced difficulties even after they had evacuated, Watanabe came up with the idea of temporarily taking in such pets at the animal shelter. He felt that even a temporary respite would be a welcome relief to the pet owners. Watanabe wanted to do something about the difficulties being caused by the pets, which would normally be valuable partners in the daily lives of their owners.
However, with so many dogs and cats already being kept in the animal shelter, there was little leeway for taking in pets.
Watanabe could only feel frustration at not being able to do anything.
When the project began to rescue pets from the no-entry zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, about 50 days had passed since the start of the nuclear accident. That was more than enough time for pets that had been left tied up or kept indoors to die.
During the hot days of summer, it became more difficult to round up animals because they remained out of sight to avoid the heat. Eventually, the number of cats began increasing through mating. That led to a downward spiral of not being able to keep pace with the capture of animals for their protection.
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