Japan

[Guest guest]

>Consider the fact that Japan has 50 dolphinariums. People see the

>captive dolphins everyday...The largest dolphin slaughter on the

>earth is going on right under their nose and yet very little is

>being done to stop it. The dolphinariums and zoos in Japan do

>nothing to stop the slaughter - neither does JAZA or WAZA.

 

 

The major problem that this points toward is the failure of

the humane movement to establish strong animal advocacy organizations

in Japan, to build upon the strong Japanese interest in viewing

wildlife and in keeping pets.

 

There are several reasons for this. One is that Japan, like

China and Korea, had a promising humane movement 75-80 years ago,

which was almost entirely obliterated by World War II and the events

leading up to it. In Japan the most prominent survivor from the

pre-war humane movement was the international animal trader and zoo

developer M. Tanagouchi.

 

Born in 1880, Tanagouchi was already 65 years old when the

war ended. He rebuilt the Tokyo Humane Society and was credited by

then-Los Angeles SPCA public relations director Richard Hitchcock

with several positive improvements in zoo design, but he wasn't the

man to start & lead a movement in opposition to captivity. And he

didn't live long enough.

 

Post-Tanagouchi, the most prominent animal advocacy groups

in Japan were headed by expatriates for about 40 years, and appear

to have done a poor job of building a Japanese constituency. The one

example of an expatriate-led organization that has taken root appears

to be Animal Rescue Kansai, begun by Elizabeth Oliver.

 

To this day, most non-Japanese animal advocacy organizations

are still trying to influence Japan through external bashing and

boycott calls (which Ric O'Barry has not joined, to his credit),

instead of finding and helping to empower the many individual

Japanese activists who need mainly know-how and encouragement to

build a Japanese animal rights movement.

 

Activists like Japanese anti-whaling movement leader Sakai

Henni and sterilization clinic founder Hiro Yamasaki didn't just fall

out of space. The society that produced them has produced thousands

of others -- but they need to be mobilized and inspired to mobilize

to have any effect.

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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