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.
Tsem Rinpoche
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 right 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:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/WSPA-2009-Achievements.mp4
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…
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It is heart warming to know the existence of WSPA organiaation who will rescue animals and give relief to them especially in disaster area. Such big hearted group of people to extend helps to animals and animal’s owner. Hopefully the organisation keeps getting the all the supports needed to continue their service.
The lady with her dog (Yusuke) is inspiring. She didn’t the difference between Yusuke but her love and care for the dog. During such a disaster many people may forget or put their pet-less priority but actually, if you really care for them, they are just as important as any other lives that need to be saved. In fact, at the moment they also feel scared, insecure and hopeless. Your pet only has you and trusted you and hoping for you to help them. We should never forget them and betray them.
Look at the rescue team which has the dogs to help for search and rescue. The dogs are the most important ones to look for the victim in any difficult environment where humans can’t reach. Aren’t we owe the dogs in this case? if we see them just as important as our lives then we would appreciate and never let go or give up other being’s life. Let’s extend our care and love for them just as how we do to the people around us.
Its sad when one look at the scenario of the the disasters. I saw it on Tv news. Could imagine the situation there which the japanese got to deal with. Well done, glad to know, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) are working hard to save lives of animals and animal welfare. They devote their lives to caring for animals.
During disasters like a collapsed building ,landslides,earthquake and so forth human rely on dog friends in search and rescue.Every minutes counts to save a life of hnuman and animals. Thats where human and dog friends work hand in hand .
The story of the woman and her dog Yusuke was interesting.Its show her love for her pet dog.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this post and the video of WSPA’s passionate work for animals and their achievememt.
In Japan Whether it is a collapsed building, , an earthquake stricken zone, tsunamis and so forth the most effective search-and-rescue teams are made up of disaster-trained dogs. The trained dogs worked hand in hand with human to saves lives.Wonderful to know what the WSPA who are there to help the animals whom were abandon by their owners, The WSPA devote their lives to caring for animals as they would for their own fellow human beings.Animals do have feelings as us human beings.
A world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty ends,looking forward to that day.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing .Love ,caring and show kindness to all sentient beings.
I love the work that WSPA does to benefit the animals. It really makes me happy to know that there are people in this world that really help animals and care for them. And others just kill them for their meat. Please stop eating meat.
We should treat animals as humans because they have feelings and they can think too. All animals is like us they can feel pain too. animals and humans working together is a very good thing. Because once the person get rescued by an animal then they will appreciate that animals save their lives.
It is very sad that we cannot take our pets along with us. I totally understand how they feel how heart broken they were. I believe many chose to stand with their dogs instead of leaving them behind.
I am amazed with what our four-legged friends can do for the victims that were trapped in the disaster sites. Human and dogs work hand in hand saving lives. These dogs are trained and they have their abilities to look out for survivors. They had helped the rescued team and saved many people’s lives.
I would like to thank WSPA who are there to act out of kindness towards the animals that were left behind by their owners. I think our new generations needed to be educated. They need to know the sufferings of animals.
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.
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.
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.
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!