You Raise Me Up

We’d like to give you an update on our coalition efforts to help the animals in the Tohoku region. A small rescue team went out from Niigata’s Animal Friends on March 15, and they are out again today on the 17th. The experience has been a tough one for those on the ground, as the amount of devastation that they are encountering is so very great. However the gratitude of the people they have met, some continuing to care for their pets under dangerous or difficult circumstances, has been amazing and very uplifting. We will continue sending folks out to see how we can help in the area, and we might eventually call for more volunteer help, but we need some time to formulate a better plan for using volunteers safely in the region. Please let us know if you are interested in joining the rescue efforts at some point, and we will add you to our growing list. More photos here…

We also want to be very sure that everyone knows to contact us for help, in the event that they will be subject to an emergency evacuation, without the ability to bring pets along to safety. Our contact information can be provided as a back up, in the case of an arranged pet sitter, as well. Please don’t leave your pets (of any variety) behind and uncared for, even if you have left a large amount of food and water available. If your return is delayed beyond the limit of what you expect, the animals will be in serious danger and nobody will be aware of their need.

Since we are currently making space for pets that people are not able to keep with them, due to sudden evacuation, things have gotten a bit hectic around here. Please mark any requests regarding this kind of help as urgent, or telephone us instead, as there are a large number of messages coming in constantly. We are so gratified by the outpouring of support for the earthquake rescue efforts, from all over the world. The coalition we started was recently listed as the number one way that people could help the animals in Japan, and we are very proud of all of the hard work that our volunteers are doing to prove that true! Please join our coalition page on Facebook, to keep up on posts from our various rescue efforts, and to lend support to the cause.

We are all greatly saddened and have been continually horrified by news of the devastation, following the recent earthquake here in Japan. We, the kitties at the JCN Kansai shelter, and the shelter itself, are all fine. We’d like to thank everyone who has written to check on us, for their concern! We felt the initial earthquake at the shelter, as well as some aftershocks, but are far enough away from the hard hit areas to be safe. Many of our volunteers in the Kansai and Kanto regions have reported in as all being safe, as well.

However, we remain very concerned about the animals in the severely effected areas, who may be overlooked in the midst of so much immediate need to address human concerns. We are currently working with two other no-kill organizations to coordinate plans for getting animals from these areas out to safety, and have already begun helping people with pets in crisis. We are in need of volunteers willing to provide foster care, those able to transport animals, help expanding our potential shelter capacity, and funds or materials for use with rescue/rehabilitation efforts.

Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support is a collaboration of 3 No-Kill animal welfare organizations in Japan; HEART-Tokushima, Animal Friends Niigata and Japan Cat Network. You can join us on Facebook for more details and information on how you can help, or contact us here for more information.

We had a great time at the spay/neuter flier pass-out events, thanks to the fine volunteers who came out to join in! We handed out fliers to people passing through the Hikone and Kusatsu JR train stations, and even met some folks that JCN has helped with stray cat issues in the past. Wanting to effect change regarding the sad state of animal welfare, and talking about it, is certainly a good thing…but actually getting out and getting involved in an effort to change public opinion gives a real sense of accomplishment. It was a fantastic experience, made even better by an increase in the positive feedback that we received from people this year. We even received donations from passersby, totaling 6,679 yen, which is enough to neuter a male cat and provide a parasite treatment.

Please think about how you can get involved today! Help organize and hold a fund raiser; Volunteer for foster care; Take on one of the organizational jobs that JCN desperately needs help with; Start and report on a TNR project in your community…So many opportunities to pitch in and be a part of the solution. We need your help, we can’t do it without you, and just a little could make all of the difference.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our

…and join us! We’ll be heading out to two stations this year, to hand out spay/neuter informational fliers, in celebration of International Spay Day (February 22). Initial scheduling difficulties have us going out a bit later than planned, but please come out to lend your support, if at all possible. At least one of us will be cat-suited and standing outside Hikone JR train station from 11:00am to 12:00pm on Sunday, March 6th. We will then head out to Kusatsu JR train station, planning to start handing out fliers there from 1:30pm until around 2:30pm.

While we’re on the subject…There is still time for you to get those stray cats in your own neighborhood spayed and neutered! Spring, and new unnecessary births, will be here soon, so please contact us now about how to get started. There are more and more options these days for low cost operations, and the work is not as hard as you might expect. Just think of how relieved you’ll feel about averting so much suffering! Those of you who have completed TNR projects large and small, feel free to chime your encouragement in, via comments here…

It’s time to get the New Year off to a picture-perfect start by entering photos of your pets in the Humane Society’s Spay Day Photo Contest, which runs from January 19 through February 25 (voting extends through March 3). Last year we eventually received around $400 for spay/neuter projects from participation in the photo contest, which is well worth the few minutes that it takes to enter, and any number of photos can be entered for free. Just answer a few questions about yourself and your pet, then choose Japan Cat Network as your organization from the pull-down menu. Share your entry on Facebook and other social venues, to increase voting and fund-raising potential. Check out Daisy’s (and Oliver’s) photo, as a sample! This is also a good chance to send us some new photos of your kitties to put up on their JCN pages. A picture can be your thousand words that spread the message of what adoption and rescue is all about!

Let us know if you would like to participate in this year’s International Spay Day flier pass out days. Join one of our scheduled days, or ask us about organizing your own!