NEWS/VIEWS – SAPPORO CITY, NORTHERN JAPAN: The story is typical in one way: a cat hoarding couple in their fifties failed to ensure that their cats were spayed and neutered which inevitably resulted in a totally unmanageable number of cats in their two story home which was rented and trashed.
The interesting aspect of the story is the photograph on this page which is courtesy the non-profit: Nyantomo Network Hokkaido.
There are many white cats mingling with black cats. I’ll assume that all the pure white cats are siblings and have the same parents. Despite looking healthy we are told that the remains of some cats were found at the house.
The couple’s landlord visited because he was not receiving rent and discovered the chaos. He had them evicted. The cats have been or are being adopted from rescue centres which implies that many of the cats were adaptable and therefore in good condition. Some of the cats were undernourished. The couple almost certainly had difficulty affording the cost of cat food. Their failure to pay rent supports this assessment.
Tamami Katsuta who is involved in cat welfare said that the hoarders had broken the country’s animal welfare laws. Kyodo News reported that the police were aware of the situation.
It must have been tough for the cats as well as the cat hoarders living in a totally unnatural environment crowded together. Cats need space and they are still essentially territorial requiring a home range they can call their own. The was no chance of that in this Japanese home which must have been stressful. It is almost certain that they have broken animal welfare laws but it is far from certain that they’ll be prosecuted.
