national

Animal welfare laws tightened to regulate buying and selling of young pets

12 Comments

The Diet has revised animal welfare laws to tighten restrictions on buying pets in Japan. The revised laws will prevent the buying and selling of newborn animals and require those selling animals online to meet customers face-to-face and explain rudimentary pet care, Sankei Shimbun reported. Early indications are that the age restriction will be introduced within five years, although the timetable has not yet been finalized.

The proposed changes suggest that the sale of cats and dogs less than 56 days old be prohibited. However, the law is to be introduced in stages, so that for the first three years, the limit will be 45 days, then 49 days, before being raised to 56, Sankei reported.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

12 Comments
Login to comment

That pet store in roppongi is creepy !!!!!!

Have they stopped the blue florescent lighting ? Drunk idiots grabbing the puppies, rabbits and kittens. Just what a pet needs !!!!!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

That place is awful. Putting meerkats and groundhogs in small dirty cages and then displaying them all night is just wrong. I wonder how legal that even is...

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Whilst Japanese generally adore animals, they have no empathy whatsoever towards them.

To take an animal from its mother at such an early age is a clearly wrong, but people don't register that it might be a problem for the animal.

And the pet shops are dispicable putting the animals on display with lights blaring at them all day and night.

Once again, people aren't taught right from wrong in this country.

The only thing that matters is how Kawaii the animals look.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

They should also ban the sale of pets between, say, 7:00 PM and 9:00 AM.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I agree with Master Bape about the lack of genuine empathy towards animals, especially new born puppies and kittens. Most countries have laws that don't let them change hands until 8 or 10 weeks. These shops should never be allowed to operate all night in Roppongi for god's sake. About lack of empathy and the world of KAWAII , Shimura-dobutsuen (Saturday evening TV with Bekky, Daigo and so on) is a show I simply cannot watch because every single zoo animal on that show has been 'abandoned by the mother' and thus must be brought up in front of studio lights by some ditzy Tarento (?).....for weeks on end, dressed up , made to do human like things, or dragged around Japan on public buses by Daigo... all for the sake of a sickening KAWAII-fest. These animals include bear cubs, penguins, wallabies, tiger cubs, monkeys, you name it. One wonders how they end up when they have outgrown their 15 minutes of KAWAII limelight. This is abuse at best.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Japan does need an animal welfare police system like they have in the United States.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japan does need an animal welfare police system like they have in the United States

And in other Western countries.

I never go to pet shops, even here in the UK. I find them depressing places. Any dog we've had we have got from either a farm or a rescue home. I can't even enter a pet shop without wanting to remove all of the animals to a place of safety where they'll be looked after properly.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I agree w/ everyone that pet/ animal attitudes in jpn are deplorable. In their defense, it is not so much in their culture. Growing up, pretty much everyone knew what to do, not to do w/ dogs and horses and why. If you didn't have them, somebody did, and even in school, we were taught. Even in big cities where there's no livestock, ppl know about dogs and cats. This is something that, in the West, has been with us and developed over centuries/ 1000s of yrs.

jpn really hasn't had the same long history or % of population living with animals and I guess, except for chiiki no neko, not so many ppl have had pets or livestock historically. This boom is the last 50 yrs? 100? So still not quite so normal.

Sure we have idiots and bad pet stores back home, but there is a common knowledge/common sense that is lacking here.

This is a law we can be thankful for.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Go to Disney Tokyo on a Saturday. At the train station (JR Maihama) front entrance. They usually have donation boxes for abandoned & abused pets. Actually they advertise to get pets from animal shelters.

Every Saturday usually they are out there.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I agree with masterbape. "The Japanese" pamper their pets silly, but have absolutely no idea of how to treat it properly or with any sense of care. if it's kawaii, it sells. "The Japanese" tend not to think past the day when the animal gets old and loses it's kawaii-ness. They arent taught right from wrong. Just "kawaii" from "futsuu". Disgusting.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

GOOD. I mean, that's the very least. They should also cut down on selling cats and dogs, and conversely encouraging people to adopt the countless strays that are taken in by underfunded animal shelters. And not toss their pet on the street when it's not cute anymore, or when they have to move.

Pet stores here should also seriously increase cage sizes for their animals. I've seen puppies and kittens kept in horrible tiny little aquariums with no toys and sometimes no water bottle even.

Additionally, Japanese "spoiling" their pets is often misguided. For example, cooking your pet a meal that consists of grains, veggies, and sugary/salty sauces when your pet is a freaking carnivore is horrible. Dogs and especially cats don't need that crap, in fact, in can make them really unhealthy. If you want to spoil your pet, buy a pet food that has a very high meat content and doesn't use corn/rice.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Plain business guys.... reasons they don't handle those puppies well.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites