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12-28-2006, 11:31 PM | #1 |
YT 6000 Club Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 6,238
| [News] Japan, Home of the Inbred Dog TOKYO, Dec. 27 ? Care for a Chihuahua with a blue hue? Hirofumi Sasaki, a pet store owner in Hiroshima, has seen so many defective dogs that last year he converted an old bar into a hospice to care for them. So far he has taken in 32 dogs, though only 12 have survived. Or how about a teacup poodle so tiny it will fit into a purse ? the canine equivalent of a bonsai? The Japanese sure do. Rare dogs are highly prized here, and can set buyers back more than $10,000. But the real problem is what often arrives in the same litter: genetically defective sister and brother puppies born with missing paws or faces lacking eyes and a nose. There have been dogs with brain disorders so severe that they spent all day running in circles, and others with bones so frail they dissolved in their bodies. Many carry hidden diseases that crop up years later, veterinarians and breeders say. Kiyomi Miyauchi was heartbroken to discover this after one of two Boston terriers she bought years ago suddenly collapsed last year into spasms on the living room floor and died. In March, one of its puppies died the same way; another went blind. Ms. Miyauchi stumbled across a widespread problem here that is only starting to get attention. Rampant inbreeding has given Japanese dogs some of the highest rates of genetic defects in the world, sometimes four times higher than in the United States and Europe. These illnesses are the tragic consequences of the national penchant in Japan for turning things cute and cuddly into social status symbols. But they also reflect the fondness for piling onto fads in Japan, a nation that always seems caught in the grip of some trend or other. ?Japanese are maniacs for booms,? said Toshiaki Kageyama, a professor of veterinary medicine specializing in genetic defects at Azabu University in Sagamihara. ?But people forget here that dogs aren?t just status symbols. They are living things.? Dogs are just one current rage. Less consequential is the big boom in the color pink: pink digital cameras, pink portable game consoles and, yes, pink laptop computers have become must-haves for young women. Last year, it was ?bug king,? a computer game with battling beetles. A number of the booms in Japan, including Tamagotchi ? basically a virtual pet that grew on a computer screen ? and the fanciful cartoon characters of Pok?mon, have made their way across the Pacific and swept up American children, too. The affection for fads in Japan reflects its group-oriented culture, a product of the conformity taught in its grueling education system. But booms also take off because they are fueled by big business. Companies like Sony and Nintendo are constantly looking to create the next adorable hit, churning out cute new characters and devices. Booms help sustain an entire industrial complex, from software makers to marketers and distributors, that thrives off the pack mentality of consumers in Japan. The same thing is happening in Japan?s fast-growing pet industry, estimated at more than $10 billion a year. Chihuahuas are the current hot breed, after one starred in the television ads of a finance company. In the early 1990s, a TV drama featuring a Siberian husky helped send annual sales rocketing from just a few hundred dogs to 60,000; sales fell when the fad cooled, according to the Japan Kennel Club. The breed took off despite being inappropriately large for cramped homes in Japan. The United States also experiences surges in sales of certain breeds, and some states have confronted ?puppy mills? that churn out popular breeds by enacting ?puppy lemon laws? that prevent breeders from selling diseased animals. But in Japan, the sales spikes are far more extreme, statistics show. The kennel club says unethical breeders try to cash in on the booms, churning out large volumes of puppies from a small number of parents. While many breeders have stuck to healthy mating practices, the lure of profits has attracted less scrupulous breeders and led to proliferation of puppy mills. Some veterinarians and other experts cite another, less obvious factor behind widespread risky inbreeding in Japan?s dog industry ? the nation?s declining birthrate. As the number of childless women and couples in Japan has increased, so has the number of dogs, which are being coddled and doted upon in place of children, experts say. In the last decade, the number of pet dogs in Japan has doubled to 13 million last year ? outnumbering children under 12 ? according to Takashi Harada, president of Yaseisha, a publisher of pet industry magazines. ?Households with few or no children are turning to dogs to fill the void,? he said. ?For a dog to be part of the family, it has to be unique and have character, like a person.? Indeed, many of these buyers want dogs they can show off like proud parents. They are willing to pay top yen, with rarer dogs fetching higher prices. Coveted traits like a blue-tinged coat are often the result of recessive genes, which can determine appearance only when combined with another recessive gene. Inbreeding is a quick way to bring out recessive traits, as dogs carrying the gene are repeatedly mated with their own offspring, enhancing the trait over successive generations. When done carefully, some types of inbreeding are safe. But in Japan, all too many breeders throw aside caution in search of a quick profit, experts in the business say. In these cases, for every dog born with prized colors, many more appear with defects, also the product of recessive genes. ?The demand is intense, and so is the temptation,? said Hidekazu Kawanabe, one of the country?s top Chihuahua breeders. ?There are a lot of bad breeders out there who see dogs as nothing more than an industrial product to make quick money.? Awareness is so recent that the only comprehensive survey of genetic defects came out two years ago, looking at malformed hips in Labrador retrievers. The results showed that nearly half of all Labradors suffered from the deformity ? four times more than the United States, according to Professor Kageyama at Azabu University, who conducted the survey. Hirofumi Sasaki, a pet store owner in the western city of Hiroshima, has seen so many defective dogs that last year he converted an old bar into a hospice to care for them. So far he has taken in 32 dogs, though only 12 have survived. One is Keika, a deaf 1-year-old female dachshund with eyes that wander aimlessly. Her breeder was originally selling her for about $7,500 because she is half-white, a rare trait in dachshunds. ?That is an unnatural color, like a person with blue skin,? Mr. Sasaki said. The breeder told Mr. Sasaki that he had bred a dog with three generations of offspring ? in human terms, first with its daughter, then a granddaughter and then a great-granddaughter ? until Keika was born. The other four puppies in the litter were so hideously deformed that they were killed right after birth. Ms. Miyauchi, the Boston terrier owner and a resident of the western city of Kobe, said she was appalled to learn how common inbreeding was in Japan. After the death of her second Boston terrier, she said she went looking for the breeder, but the phone number she got from the pet shop was invalid. ?No one?s really monitoring the industry,? she said. The government concedes that oversight is poor, and passed a law in June to revoke the licenses of breeders who use dogs with genetic defects for breeding. But the Environment Ministry, which has jurisdiction over pets, says it has just four officials to monitor all of 25,000 pet shops, kennels and breeders in Japan. The Japan Kennel Club began adding results of DNA screening onto pedigree certificates in April. But that falls short of the American Kennel Club, which discourages risky inbreeding by listing acceptable colors for each breed. ?Japan is about 30 or 40 years behind in dealing with genetic defects,? said Takemi Nagamura, president of the Japan Kennel Club. Ultimately, animal care professionals say, the solution is educating not just breeders but potential dog owners. ?If consumers didn?t buy these unnatural dogs,? said Chizuko Yamaguchi, a veterinarian at the Japan Animal Welfare Society, ?breeders wouldn?t breed them.? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/bu...gg&oref=slogin |
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01-03-2007, 09:01 AM | #2 |
YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: San Mateo
Posts: 887
| I'm ashamed.... I am so ashamed and sad for the practice in Japan. I am Japanese and I am very aware of the fad and trend in Japan. It is amazing how people just buy puppies just because it is a "trend" that season. I am not a typical Japanese so I don't really follow trend especially comes to puppy. I am a yorkie lover and I prefer yorkie over any other breed. Despite of all the challenges with yorkies (like stubbornness, hard to train, and so on), I love those character. They may be stubborn but it is sign of their intelligence. They have their own thoughts. (Scary!!) I wish there is something I can do to help educate people in Japan...... |
01-06-2007, 09:04 AM | #3 |
Mojo, LilyGrace & Me Donating Member Moderator Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: cuddling with my babies<3
Posts: 17,329
| Wow! That is sad and scary! Those poor animals! I hope this "trend" ends soon!
__________________ Hi I'm Jenn Mom to..... Mojo,LilyGrace & DD Kate RIP Mojo FOREVER in our hearts! |
03-28-2007, 02:51 PM | #4 | |
Missing Yoshi Everyday! Donating Member | Quote:
__________________ Yoshi Mei Ling Ting Ting Ting Ki Sun Hye Yukio Kioshi | |
03-28-2007, 11:50 PM | #6 |
Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posts: 1,208
| We lived in Japan for 7 years and learned of many bad things that go on there with the pets. One day I walked past a pet shop and just had to go in and see the babies. I noticed one tiny Maltese hiding in the back corner of his cage. I'm not usually one to purchase from a pet shop but my heart just sank for this little one the second I saw him. Iasked to hold him and the instant I picked him up he just sank into my neck as if with a sigh of relief. I could hear his raspy breath and knew he was sick. I figured he had kennel cough. I could not bear to put him back in the cage and called my husband. I told him that something inside me just would not let me leave him. My hubby brought the money and Ty came home with us. This was on a friday. I couldn't get him into the vet until Monday but had him there first thing Monday morning. He was tiny weighing about 8 oz and was supposed to be 8 weeks old but the vet said no way he was that old he figured more like 5 weeks. Before we left that day I was told that my new baby had a congenital heart defect and that his heart was huge. Vet said we will put him on meds but my best guess for him would be about a week. I was so upset. I called a Japanese friend who called the shop owner and explained to him what was going on. He told her to have me bring the dog back and he would give me a new one. Said he couldn't give me the one until Wednesday though as he goes to "market" to pick up dogs on Tuesdays. I told her to ask him what he would do with him. He told her he would kill the dog, he didn't have time or money to take care of a sick dog. I said "NO WAY!" I will keep him until he goes so he can be loved until then. He died what must have been a very painful death almost exactly a week later in my kitchen while I was giving him his meds and my children were eating breakfast and getting ready for school. I found out that the puupy mills all take thier puppies and kittens to the market once a week and sell them dirt cheap to all the pet shops. Most way before they even 6 weeks old. You know gotta get them sold while they are still small. Puppies that become sick or grow too big to sell are gassed. They also have something called drop boxes in some parts of Japan still. These are boxes on the side of the street where you can drop your pet when you no longer want them. The boxes are emptied once or twice a week and the pets inside are gassed or drowned. I never actually saw one myself while I was there just read about them. They are not in the larger cities but more in the smaller areas. Hopefully they have done away with them altogether now. All that being said, all the Japanese people that I saw eith pets really loved them and took care of them well. Just like thier children. Altjough you always have some who leave them outside and what not and there was no different than here in that respect. Kim
__________________ Please help save Lennox! http://www.savelennox.co.uk/ Let your voice be heard so Lennox can go home |
03-29-2007, 01:32 AM | #7 |
Donating Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: B.C, Canada
Posts: 787
| Kim, That is so sad.It must have been so hard on you and your children.I am glad at least that he was with someone like you who loved him when he passed on. |
03-29-2007, 08:05 PM | #9 |
Mommy to Kikko-man Donating Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: California/taiwan
Posts: 1,562
| same thing happened with my sister and mom when we lived in korea for a bit. they saw this tiny maltese, they named him nilla, and they couldn't leave him. he was in a small cage with 4 other dogs ... it was just so sad they would have taken them all with us but they coudln't. they took him home, he was fine the first two days (they had a vet appt scheduled for monday) then they noticed he wasn't drinking any water and then he become really listless ... they rushed him to the vet and he died that night .. they only had him for 3 days! they were all so upset ... its so sad. i mean i got kikko from a pet store in taiwan b/c the same reason, when things turned bad there was no way i'd give him back to those pple, who knows what they would have done with him ... and luckily so far he's over most of the worst and i just hope to give him a good life with lots of love and care no matter what pops up later down the road. its tough to regulate a large number of people with just a few pple. i wish there were more we were all able to do. |
03-29-2007, 11:47 PM | #10 | |
BANNED FOR STEALING YORKIETALK CONTENT! Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Residenting in Wichita, Ks / Hometown in Arlington, Tx
Posts: 6,704
| Quote:
i knoe i wish there was too !! i hate to see this continue around the world. it's so sad !! | |
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