Japanese ris radiation to rescue stranded dogs!

[Blu-ray]

Such an awesome story! Way to go! :o)

TOKYO – When Etsumi Ogino saw a news photo of a pack of shelties wandering through an abandoned town near Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant, she thought of her own 13-year-old canine Kein and jumped into action.


"My heart trembled," said Ogino, a 56-year-old volunteer at an animal shelter in Chiba prefecture. "They looked just like my dog. I started searching for them right away."


She and others around Japan called Asahi.com, the website of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which had run the photo. An Associated Press photographer had snapped that photo and others of the dogs on an empty street in Minami Soma city, an area evacuated because of radiation fears.


On Saturday, the AP gave her details of where the dogs were spotted.


Ogino relayed the information to a team of animal rescuers called Sheltie Rescue. By then, the group had been getting emails from dog lovers around the country about the abandoned pack.


Through emails and Internet research it was established that the owner of the dogs was a breeder in Minami Soma. The group contacted the Fukushima city branch of the Japan Collie Club, tracked the owner down by phone at a shelter and got her go-ahead to rescue the dogs.


In the wee hours of Sunday morning, seven volunteers left Tokyo and drove over broken roads and past demolished houses to meet three other volunteers in the ghost town that Minami Soma has become. Some had prepared radiation suits and others wore simple vinyl raincoats.


The first two to arrive found the pack around the Odaka train station, near the owner's home, where the AP team had last seen them.


"They were waiting for their owner," said Tamiko Nakamura, a volunteer who went with the group from Tokyo.


The dogs had been left some dry food, and weren't starving.
It took a while to entice them with snacks, and six or seven were bundled into each car. The group saved 20 dogs in all.


Most were taken to a veterinary clinic in Kanagawa prefecture just west of Tokyo. Others are being cared for by individuals in other areas.
The owner, worn down by the disaster and worrying about her dogs, was "extremely happy," Nakamura said. She said the owner did not want her identity revealed.


Nakamura only regrets that some of the dogs in the pack ran away and countless others are still stranded in the evacuation zone.
"There are still some left behind," she said. "I'm concerned about them and want to pull them out."
___
Associated Press writer Eric Talmadge and photographer Hiro Komae spotted the dogs in Minami Soma on April 7.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110414/...ake_dog_rescue

[JenaS62]

I know it must be hard during great human tragedy to think about the animals so this is a great story! Thanks for sharing it.

[Bob]

Does anybody remember when being treated like a dog, was a bad thing?

[Nu Kua]

What good will those dogs do? Likely none at all. They will now have to find homes for them and somebody will be left to feed and care for them until the day they drop dead for reals. There is no shortage of dogs so those dogs aren't really needed for anything.

While on the scale of earthly things, this matters not one bit, there is another scale where it matters a whole lot, to realize people still can love for no other reason than just to love. Look around you (over there) or in any destruction zone, there is almost always somebody who no matter how destitute will be good to someone or something more needy than themselves- when it not only doesn't "matter", it sometimes actually causes a sacrifice of some sort on the part of the stronger party. It doesn't make sense when you look at the state of the world around these areas in its physical form- which is disintegrating; but when you look at life beyond its physical manifestation, then it makes sense that people still care. So yeah, that's a nice story.

[pico]

If this was China, I would say they need to simply get some non tainted food to these people, but I do not think the Japanese are trying to get their belly full on canine. This is a stupid allocation of resources and a waste of human health over dogs. It might be sad, but no dog is worth the life of a human... we are simply a bit higher on the scale of worth.

[The Mule]

we are simply a bit higher on the scale of worth.

With regards to many of our species I would say that is hugely debatable.

Is the guy who molested those Alaskan kids higher on the scale versus a dog who may offer unconditional love, comfort and friendship ? Likewise many of his ilk, criminals, wasters, parasites, sickos and psychos.

I think not.

[JenaS62]

Would I save my dog over one of my kids - absolutely not. Would I save my dog over another human being - probably not. But if there was not an immediate need to save a human on that road over the dogs - of course I would try to save the dogs. But then again - I am an animal lover and feel that any living, breathing creature deserves to be treated humanely and helped whenever possible.

[Max]

I must admit, my first thought on reading it was they only did it to eat the dogs. Why do westerners have this image of Asians lol

[Blu-ray]

My Fur Babies come before all y'allz!

Just sayin!