Police in Toyama City are investigating the circumstances that led to a dog being buried up to its neck in the ground on a canal bank and abandoned. The animal, which was unable to move, was discovered on Oct 9 and immediately taken into protective care. Police said Tuesday that the dog is recovering, but has been severely weakened by its ordeal.
The dog was discovered on the banks of the canal in the city's Kojin area about 2 p.m. by a passer-by who immediately alerted the fire department. Police and firemen dug the dog out. The dog is a male crossbreed weighing around 30 kilograms and roughly a meter in length.
The dog was not wearing a collar at the time he was rescued and no record of his registration has been found. Police are now searching for the dog's owner, or any potential witnesses who were in the vicinity of the canal when the dog was being buried.
Animal welfare legislation in Japan states that mistreatment of a pet may result in the imposition of a fine of up to 500000 yen.
© Compiled from news reports
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mikehuntez
I hope they catch the sicko that did this. This is only a gateway to abusing humans as well. This is another case of eye for an eye or taste of ones own medicine. I'd like to see the sicko buried and have my chance at ... teaching him how it feels.
ebisen
If one can do this to a dog, one will have no problem doing the same or worse to a human.
Up to 500000 Yen?!?! - this must be a joke - animal abuse should be punished as severely as abuse done on humans...
Klein2
They should start their interrogations with people who have recently rented the movie Creepshow. It is a pretty obscure film that shows exactly the same scenario.
BurakuminDes
Klein - there is also another Z-Grade horror flick - "Motel Hell" - where humans are buried up to their necks and then...I won't go any further!
This case is discgracefully cruel - I hope they catch the perpetrators - there is more than 1 - and they are named and shamed and punished.
Roppongi
sniff... sniff... I hate to hear about animals being mistreated! Impose the same law for crimes against humans!
KakiOko
Burying a 30kg dog, which would have struggled, would have taken an effort. Maybe more than one person did this. My first thought was a group of kids. But I have nothing to substantiate this from the article.
FruitsBasketFan
500000 yen, huh?
paulinusa
mikehuntez & ebisen: Recent studies by criminal psychologists suggest that young people(if this is the case) tend to mature into child and spouse abusers. In fact when authorities respond to animal abuse in the US they sometimes investigate the family also.
smithinjapan
This is sad. I hope they catch the person (people) responsible, though I can't see how they will.
ca1ic0cat
That's just sick. Hopefully somebody will adopt the dog.
thekeykeeper
People people people, the fact here is that the dog was neither wanted anymore, a lovers dispute, or the dog was dognapped. IMO I think that the dog might have been dognapped and buried after the dog was drugged, while the dog was out of it, it would have made burying the dog by one person even easier, but this is just guess work.
I'm just glad that someone found the poor animal before it was too late.
Frungy
Poor puppy. ;(
Potsu
"Animal welfare legislation in Japan states that mistreatment of a pet may result in the imposition of a fine of up to 500000 yen."
In Japan ?? Lol,yeah right...
TheGyozanator
Animal abuse is a problem world wide. I find this kind of thing especially disturbing; animals are just as capable as humans of suffering from mental abuse as well as physical abuse. The fear, confusion and abandonment felt by that innocent dog is saddening. I too would like to see the person who did this buried up to their neck and left for a while. They should taste what it's like to be abused. It's the only way they'll learn.
Sunjovi
Kawaiso dog
lazarus0202
It takes a particularly seasoned kind of cruelty to do do something like that. Thank goodness it was not found dead.
cleo
Preferably upside down?
The article is out of date. According to 47News, the owner came forward on the 11th and the dog, a 10-year-old Akita (from the photos I'd say it was an Akita mix), has been returned to him. He says the dog went missing on the morning of the 9th from outside his house, where it was chained up. All dogs should be microchipped to ensure a lost dog is reunited with his human as quickly as possible, and should never be left chained out of sight of the owner.
Hard to imagine a 30 k Akita would just quietly lie there while someone piled soil on top of him. It sounds like some jerk dumped a truckload of dirt on top of the dog - a 'mountain' 80cm high and 150cm wide, with the dog's head sticking out at the bottom of the pile. Apparently it took them over half an hour to dig the poor dog out.
Klein2
Burakumin. I see your Motel Hell and raise you Gladiator.
I agree it is terrible. That is a pretty big dog too, which somehow makes it a lot worse in my book. Who could do that?
"Recent studies by criminal psychologists suggest"
Not so recent. The link between animal abuse and child/spouse abuse is VERY well established, and has been so for more than 20 years, certainly.
"They should taste what it's like to be abused. It's the only way they'll learn."
In fact, that IS how they learn.
Laguna
Dogs are commonly chained up outside with no shelter and sporadic food and water to live amongst their feces and urine while suffering from scabies and other parasites, and that returning this poor pooch to such a hellish existence would save the offender the 500,000 yen fine as such a barbaric practice is so common in Japan as to not be termed abuse.
jason6
It's possible that this dog, being chained outside and left alone all day long, was one of those that bark at everything (all day long). One of the neighbors got fed up and decided to take a little revenge.
If that is the case.. it's irritating to have a barking dog next door, but that's no justification to do this at all. Why not take it up with the irresponsible pet owner?
Anyways, if there is an investigation, first people I would ask are the neighbors. They could be witnesses or the perpetrator(s).
cleo
The owner is 73 years old. I wonder how much exercise the dog gets.
Jbeezy
there is this dog in my neighborhood that barks at me like a maniac every time i pass by. i want to kick the shit out of it, but i maintain myself. maybe this dog was harassing someone, and they just couldn't take it anymore? how about my neighbors dogs that bark at every car/person that passes by and wakes me and the whole neighborhood up?
gogogo
poor little doggy....
FightingViking
Jbeezy: Did you read Laguna's remarks ? How would you like to be chained up all day with no food or water, living in your own excrement ? I have seen this far too often in Japan... Whatever the weather, boiling hot, freezing cold, typhoons or whatever, day in, day out, chained up... Barking at passersby is the only way of trying to attract attention : "Please help me ! Nobody cares what happens to me out here !"
I am so thankful I was abe to save my ex-police dog, beaten up by a bad cop who became so scared when I first adopted him, he would cower behind me at the mere sight of a man, a uniform or any kind of stick... (even my "feather duster" scared him when he first arrived !) He is now sleeping peacefully on his "icenon" pillow in our sitting room (since he still finds it a little too hot for hisliking) and we will now go out for his eening walk...
FightingViking
Last line : "his liking" and "evening walk" Sorry for the typos.
Tom DeMicke
I'm with you Potsu...that fine would be strictly imposed - - and then suspended! I don't condone this action at all, but a pet is not the same as a stray animal. I wonder if the same law would apply to someone who owns a pet and neglects it. Example...here in Okinawa, people are notorious for owning pets and totally ignoring them. Last night, a neighbor's dog barked nearly the entire night. No one heard it??? Kept me from getting a good night's sleep. I would love to see a JPY500,000 fine levied on that owner!
Jbeezy
i understand your point Viking. i don't condone this at all....im just saying sometimes dogs really irritate me with their senseless barking.
chibichan92
who knows if the dog even had an owner, it could have been a stray dog that someone who is beginning to have homicidal thoughts found and decided it would be fun the bury and watch it slowly die
cleo
chibichan, I wrote earlier that the dog had been returned to its owner, so um yes, we do know that it had/has an owner. Not that it makes any difference - it's OK to bury a stray alive, but not a pet?
Judging from the huge amount of dirt piled on top of the dog, I'm inclined to think someone simply dumped a truckload of waste soil and drove off, not noticing that they'd dumped it on the dog.
cleo
Jbeezy - Your peeve is with the dog's owner, not with the dog.
limboinjapan
I got lambasted the other day on JT for my comments on how Japanese pamper their little yappy rat size dogs.
But I am a dog lover and especially the big ones and most lager breeds tend not to be yappy especially Akita unless provoked, owned a lot of big dogs and most preferred to stay outside (never forced them to they just seemed to prefer it if they came to the door and scratched I'd let them in usually only to have to let them out 30 min later) so I see nothing wrong with the owner leaving the dog chained outside (chained not loose, with shelter and clean water).
But what these/this sick b@stard(s) did is unforgivable and I agree with Cleo bury the guy/guys who did this preferably head first.
We use animals for many things including food, work, companionship but no mater what we as humans still need to treat them properly they are our responsibility.
kokorocloud
Sick... How people can treat another living creature that way makes me ill.
IchyaWarFare
I have a problem. My neighbors that live down the street have quite a large dog that is very sick. He can no longer move and they have him just sitting outside their door in a pamper. He cries all day and all night. The family does not keep him inside, but keeps him out all night for everyone to hear. I am not the only pet owner on the block, but no one seems to want to say anything to them. I just do not want to be that "gaijin" that goes and disturbs the peace of the neighborhood because the poor soul is left out.