The Pet Cemetery

Alas, Poor Chibi

We recently snuck into Tokyo University's test laboratories and found a dog tag in the trash can next to the incinerator. It belonged to a hound named "Chibi". So we tracked down and phoned up Chibi's former master, an old man with a high, scratchy voice who lives in Shizuoka prefecture. We asked him: So what happened to Chibi? "I didn't want him aymore, so I gave him to City Hall," he replied. We didn't have the heart to tell him that Chibi had been cut into pieces by students with steak knives, then scooped up and burnt to a crisp.
Almost all public health offices accept unwanted pets but have no mechanism for finding them new homes. This means 900,000 animals are destroyed each year, either by health officials or laboratories. One exception is Tokyo, largely due to the efforts of the 1000-member Dobutsutachi No Kai. In 1994, the animal lovers group persuaded Tokyo City Hall to begin releasing unwanted pets to animal welfare groups. Last year, over 900 animals were given a second lease on life. But not Chibi.

The Great Kennel in the Sky

Dead pets are big business for private mortuaries and animal cemeteries. A modest cremation and shared burial site for a cat or small dog starts from ¥10,000,but can rocket to a hundred times that amount. Graves range from a shelf (for ashes) to grassy plots which are regularly maintained.
The Buddhist Christian Peace Society (3703-3335) will give your pet a religious farewell, while Mobile Cremation Unit (0473-75-0161) will do it on your doorstep. To hold the ashes, Yanagi Homes (3666-2131) will provide a cigar-box-sized Buddhist altar, which also doubles as an attractive and unusual paperweight.

Feeding Time

Meals on Wheels

Feed Me

For Tokyo animals there's none of that waiting at home while your master goes out to eat and hoping he remembers to bring back a doggy bag. The Koenji coffee shop Nackie is one of those slightly-ahead-of-their-time places that recognizes pet purchasing power and isn't afraid to seat dogs or cats along with their masters. There are pet food snacks and treats on the menu right alongside hot drinks and sandwiches for accompanying humans. In fact, the Shiroganedai area pet store Boggy and May (3473-4911) has a café annex where pets and owners can share the same calcium-fortified hamburger.

Alternative Pets

In Cold Blood

Reptiles account for just over 1 percent of the total pet market, but the popularity of cold-blooded buddies is growing. Snakes and lizards have many advantages over a dog or cat, says Masato Abe of Tokyo's Abe Clinic. They're small, quiet, don't smell and don't need to be walked or fed every day - perfect companions for the cramped and busy lifestyles of young people today. They're also getting cheaper. The ball python has dropped from ¥60,000 to ¥10,000 in the last two years, while green lizards sell for around ¥6000.
Lizards top the reptilian charts. They first scampered in to the spotlight six or seven years ago when an Australian frilled lizard appeared on TV commercials. Their ensuing popularity was fueled by the dinosaur boom. But veterinarian Masato Abe for one believes the lizard trend is unhealthy.
"Such animals really belong in the wild," he says. "A few years ago, a woman came to me in a panic to ask if I could stop her alligator from growing - it was already too big for the bathtub. Then there was the schoolboy who brought in his lizard because it kept spitting," continues Abe. "We kept it here for a few days, but it wouldn't spit. The he took it home and it was spitting again. Finally, I managed to look up the species in a veterinary book. It was a spitting lizard."

Exploding Hamsters
Not since Richard Gere visited his proctologist have small furry pets been so much in the news. There is currently a hamster boom especially among OLs, who like the creatures because they are cheap (¥1000 a pop) and don't wake up to loud cries of Kawaiiiiiii! The craze is bound to continue with the important news that Prime Minister Hashimoto's wife is a hamster owner. Will the hamster come to symbolize this administration (small, stupid, sleepy) in the same way that Socks the cat characterized Clinton's White House (smug, shifty, very fuzzy around the edges)? Or will it just be eaten by the monster cockroaches that famously overrun the PM's official residence?

Exploding Hamsters
Not since Richard Gere visited his proctologist have small furry pets been so much in the news. There is currently a hamster boom especially among OLs, who like the creatures because they are cheap (¥1000 a pop) and don't wake up to loud cries of Kawaiiiiiii! The craze is bound to continue with the important news that Prime Minister Hashimoto's wife is a hamster owner. Will the hamster come to symbolize this administration (small, stupid, sleepy) in the same way that Socks the cat characterized Clinton's White House (smug, shifty, very fuzzy around the edges)? Or will it just be eaten by the monster cockroaches that famously overrun the PM's official residence?

BACKĄNEXT