Quick update about the Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster. We started thinking about the animals when we saw the story of the little dog who stood by her/his friend until humans arrived on the scene and s/he summoned them to help. We thought, what loyalty and honor from this little animal! You might remember, we blogged about it.
This inspired us to start looking into what could be done. So, we set about extensively researching organizations that already existed to see what they were doing about the specific situation. What we learned, instead of providing hope, made us pretty depressed. There's a stunning amount of high-overhead efforts, and frankly we didn't feel like funding executive luxury.
We also learned that, unfortunately, in Japan, the people shelters don't allow animals. Hey, we can't judge; the shelters there are very much like they were right here in the good ole USA before Katrina -- animals weren't allowed in ours either. But there was one piece of good news. The Japanese government suspended regulations to provide far more latitude in keeping victim pets from meeting an untimely end before they could be reunited with their families.
This development has provided an opportunity. We've been on the phone and exchanging emails with some of our veterinary medicine industry colleagues in Japan. We've learned that on site there was no time for high-overhead; they were digging in with direct help on the ground, and mud on their boots. Actually, mud everywhere -- it's really quite nasty over there, people are having to go into the contaminated areas wearing hazmat suits. There is even some uncertainty in the law having to do with whether or not removing animals from the contaminated areas constitutes theft. That's definitely something they're having to work out.
In any case, while it took us a while to understand the issues and to get our head around the problem, we think we have pretty good slice of the solution. For more on what we've come up with -- stay tuned.
