Animals and Humans: Working together in Japan
Like everyone else around the world, I have been following the news on Japan and praying for them. It is heart-wrenching to see what has taken place in the beautiful islands of Japan. More so, with the nuclear crisis that they now face. It seems like the disaster is never-ending… one problem after another…
In this past week, so many people have been working non-stop to find as many survivors as possible. Even rescue teams have flown in from different countries.
To date, Japan has been offered help from over 100 countries. However, the situation is still very challenging as well as dangerous. Some places have been extremely devastated beyond recognition. Other places are very difficult to reach, if not impossible.
The article below has been extracted from WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals; http://animalsindisasters.typepad.com/wspa/):
WSPA prepares to head into Japan
Early tomorrow morning (local time) a WSPA Disaster Assessment and Response Team (DART) from the WSPA Asia office will depart for Japan, following days of monitoring the situation from afar and keeping up constant discussion with partner organisations within Japan.
Dr. Ian Dacre and Dr. Damian Woodberry, two WSPA vets with years of experience in operations to help animals in disasters, will start by signing up to join the ‘shelter cluster’ coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). As OCHA has stated in its Situation Report of 14 March, “search and rescue remains the priority in tsunami and earthquake affected areas”. Considering the large numbers of people that will need to be housed in temporary shelters, as we reported yesterday, we expect there to be a significant impact on the animals that were part of these families.
The WSPA team are also hoping to meet with contacts in the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries MAFF) as well as the Ministry of Environment (MoE), who have already been informed of our willingness to support their efforts in the field.
Meanwhile we’ve received a very positive update from our member society the Kanagawa Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (KSPCA); they inform us that several animal welfare groups in Japan have come together to launch a coordinated effort to help the animals affected by last week’s quake and resultant tsunami.
Being present in Japan will mean that the WSPA DART are able to extend more tangible support to these groups working in the field, who with their presence on the ground, have a far superior understanding of the needs facing animals in Japan right now.
At this point, every minute counts because the longer it takes to search and rescue, the less likely the numbers of survivors will be. This is when we humans have to really rely on our four-legged friends… dogs.
Whether it is a collapsed building, a bomb site, an earthquake stricken zone, tsunamis, or landslides – the most effective search-and-rescue teams are made up of disaster-trained dogs. These specially trained canines will go where no man or woman can go, and they can sniff out survivors buried under rubble faster than any human rescuer can.
On the left is a picture of the American search-and-rescue dogs taking a break in a gymnasium in Sumita, Northern Japan. The dogs are resting on cots set up by the U.S and British rescue teams who are currently in Japan.
“With a sense of smell far more powerful than man’s, and an ability to probe nooks and crannies that humans cannot penetrate, these dogs save lives and bring comfort to the families whose friends and relatives succumbed in the tragedy.”
“Dogs are trained to follow the scent in different terrain and weather conditions, and to identify cadaver scent in bodies of water. Their skills are sharpened through regular training sessions and by handlers with daily training at home.”
The care that dogs display towards humankind, in this case during the Japanese earthquake, is returned with humankind displaying their care towards dogs.
There are many Japanese who refuse to enter shelters or refuse to leave their homes because they would have to abandon their pets.
Like this lady (below) and her dog Yusuke. This is a story extracted from the Facebook page for Japanese Earthquake Rescue and Support. This lady did not evacuate because they would not allow her to take her dog along. I have read of many stories where the animals or pets stood by their owners or waited for their owners such as Hachiko, but not the other way around. The devotion and loyalty that this woman has for her dog is truly amazing.
“Before we hit the disaster stricken areas of Sendai today, we spoke to this woman on the street toward the center of the city. She broke down and in tears, told us how she was from a hard hit area, but didn’t evacuate because they wouldn’t let her take her dog (Yusuke). She stayed with him in a shaking house for three days she said, and told us Yusuke was extremely stressed from the ordeal. She thanked us for being there to help.”
Non-profit organizations currently in Japan like WSPA are also showing acts of kindness towards animals… which is increasingly getting less and less common in our world today. The individuals who represent WSPA devote their lives to caring for animals as they would for their own fellow human beings.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is one of the organizations I like and would support because we share the same vision. That is, to live in “a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty ends.”
Please check out their blog and website. They are a non-profit animal welfare organization, founded in 1981 and have offices in 13 different countries around the world. With their head office in London, and through their vast network of 900 member organizations, WSPA are able to take real steps towards fulfilling their goals, which is to setup a global animal welfare movement.
Below is a video of WSPA’s passionate work for animals. It gives a good summary of what they are all about…
Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/WSPA-2009-Achievements.flv
The large network of member societies that WSPA has allows them to coordinate their efforts and resources more effectively to deal with the various issues concerning animal welfare at the local front. For instance, the WSPA Disaster Assessment and Response Team (DART) that is preparing to depart for Japan.
Please do not wait for disasters to strike us before we learn to care for all sentient beings. The day we evolve into a highly developed society is when we become a caring society…
Tsem Rinpoche
Animals sometimes can be better “Inspiritional” sources of model in displaying and showing humans what devotion, loyalty and unconditional love really mean. Especially in helping out in very difficult and challenging situations of trying to find survivors in extremely devastated places as that of what already had happened inthe beautiful islands of Fukushima, Japan. Be it in a collapsed building, a bombed-site,earthquaked or lanslided striken zones,where and when every minute counts, and humans have to rely on the fearless fout-legged dog,to sniffed out the survivors much more efficiently and fster than humans’rescuers do. Dogs with their well-sharpened skills are able to follow the scent in different terrain and weather conditions and are able to detectthe cadaver scent in bodies of water. The specially trained cannine will go anywhere where no man goes, equipped with an ability to probe nooks and crannies that humans cannot reach and able to save the lives of love ones of the grateful families. Today large network of member societies of british and american rescue teams are introducing such coordinative methods with much more better results and efficiency, thanks to our fellow cannine beings friends!
I hope more people will realise the role of animals play for us, they are not meant to be food for us or for us to abused or used. In the event of disasters like this I hope people will remember the role animals play in this world and that animals can be our partners in the world also. From this it tells me we should not eat our partners. Hence go vegetarian it is good for the planet also.
A lot of people said “dogs are even more faithful than my partner.” hehe… I guess a lot of these sayings are somehow true. Have anyone watched the movie Hachiko? Not only that, there are guard dogs who guard our house and property day and night. And dogs who are trained to become “detective”. What about dogs who cried when they see their owners are sad… Animals might not be able to speak our language, but they definitely can feel, just like us. They might not be able to do things like us, but they did enough for us. So let’s be nice to them and make it a better place for them to live on this earth.
How wonderful to have more organization or group to take on the role of protecting animals. Everyone does not want suffering including animals, sadly we always neglected the animals and treat them as our food or “money making machine”
Taking care of animals will helps us to be kinder and a test of our compassion as they does not speak our language, will not say “thank you” to us, also they can’t tell us when they are sick, hence by taking care of animals help us to be more observance and more sensitive to others feeling.