Anyone fancy a visit to a sleepy Japanese fishing village and home of 120 cats? We know we would!
Islands full of cats in Japan or Greece show up periodically in the news as a unique destination for cat lovers but as true cat advocates we also have to ask: who is taking care of the cats?
Photo By PawełMM (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
You can see some lovely pictures of frolicking cats on the Island of Aoshima from The Independent, and a quick search for island cats will lead you to about 10 other islands in Japan as well as a handful of islands in Greece.
We’d really love to visit these islands, though at the back of our minds we can’t help but consider the living conditions of these cats. Who is responsible for the health and wellbeing of these cats that are stuck on an island, continuously breeding, and probably haven’t evolved to catch fish from the ocean (yet)? What we see on the sleepy cat island of Aoshima is a fixed amount of space where a few cats once imported to control mice soon ballooned to a population of 900 cats. Apparently this number has now dwindled back to a population of 120 that are being cared for by aging island residents. We hope that they will soon become 120 spay/ neutered cats that live in a healthy environment where they each have access to proper food, nutrition, and necessary healthcare for their whole lives. In a confined space a simple disease could spread rather quickly, and we’d hate to think how busy the local veterinarian would be if that were to happen.
While an island of fluffy cats DO make a great tourist attraction it’s just as important that that the local residents/ government take into consideration the proper care and maintenance for these lovely animals! #moralresponsibility #humananimalbond #animalwelfare
From the AVMA: Animal welfare means how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. Ensuring animal welfare is a human responsibility that includes consideration for all aspects of animal well-being, including proper housing, management, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, responsible care, humane handling, and, when necessary, humane euthanasia.
ABC Animal Hospital NYC Blog 