Shortsighted decisions may lead to the animals being abandoned.

It is infuriating and distressing, and pet shops must be held responsible for not screening potential adopters. These are living creatures, not a hat.

Sadly too many owners in Japan dont put enough thought into pets & quick to jump on fads which is just awful.

My best friend of 19years, a dachs, recently passed of very old age, I cant imagine to have thought to just try to get rid of him on some whim, but many do here & many simply dont care properly at all for pets supposedlu under their care!

It is not just Japan.

America is worse in my opinion.

Agreed with first 2 comments above.

@GW: Sincerely sorry for your loss. 19 years is a wonderful commitment only ‘pet lovers’ understand.

Some corp exec yesterday was trying to say pets can be replaced with objects. “Many Japanese accept idea that every object has a soul,” - From Feb 28 - ”Japan's android pets ease virus isolation“.

Let them have their artificial plastic. There is no soul there.

Real pets are a lifetime commitment. If you can commit, adopt a pet.

Ask around your neighborhood. Plenty of people are ready to abandon that growing puppy or kitty. (They’ll be relieved they didn't have to make that weekend drive to the forest before ‘club activities’ start). -

And, whatever you decide, don’t buy at pet shops to support the Japanese pet farms! Unsold, mature animals are euthanized and females are bred, again and again, til they are feeble and dead. -

And, whatever you decide, don’t buy at pet shops to support the Japanese pet farms! Unsold, mature animals are euthanized and females are bred, again and again, til they are feeble and dead. 

In addition, pups are taken from their dams and siblings way too early so that they can waste no time getting into the pet shop windows and looking cute. These poor pups have a hard time socialising because they have not had the time with Mum and other pups, making them harder to train. If the new owner is a newbie with no training experience or skills, the pup runs the risk of being labelled 'untrainable' and/or 'aggressive' and could well end up being dumped at the hokenjo.

One of our dogs is a rescue from a pet shop (bought, and then put up for adoption because the family couldn't cope). He was a real Problem Child when he came to us - literally could not be touched, the first thing I had to teach him was Don't Bite the Hand that is Trying to Feed You - and it's taken us literally years of blood, sweat and tears to turn him into the reasonably well-trained dog he is today.

So yes, adopt, don't buy - and if you're a first-time owner, make sure you know what you're getting yourself into!

We rescued a rabbit about 9 years back and she was wonderful. Passed away over a year ago so we go to rabbit island often now and bring lots of food to feed the cute little things. Great hotel there by the way with fabulous breakfast and dinner.

Another thing is, during this kind of virus pandemic it is rather irresponsible, against the pet , eventually catching COVID and like a ping-pong keeping , multiplying , and against oneself, receiving that virus load from the pet back to the people in the household. Wait with buying pets or mind them a little bit as long as this all isn’t really over yet.