JAPAN: Laws Needed to Curb Abuse of Bears in Captivity

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Dec 7 2003 (IPS) - An old Asiatic black bear walks slowly in its narrow concrete pit, pausing unsteadily just about every second to get its balance. Its enclosure is bone bare, without even a water hole to drink from. In the far corner, its mate sits with its eyes closed, its large paws covering its nose.

Graphic footage such as this, collected by activists, highlight the plight of the animals in Japan’s bear parks. There where the trapped beasts, kept to entertain visitors, have nothing to do but walk listlessly within their concrete enclosures.

The activists’ photographs also display bleeding wounds on the bears’ backs or show them rocking back and forth, signs of psychological suffering due to their harsh living conditions and captivity.

Combining almost a decade of surveys and investigation, animal rights activists are demanding reforms in Japan’s bear parks. They are calling for the creation of forest enclosures representing the natural habitat of bears and point to the urgent need for stringent laws in Japan to protect animals in captivity.

“Bears are locked up in small concrete pits and deprived of food, exercise or veterinary care, all for the sake of entertaining the public. This has led to horrible effects on the bears,” said Victor Watkins, director of wildlife at the London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), a non-governmental organisation.

WSPA is leading the campaign with ALIVE, a Japanese organisation that pushes animal protection.

Fusako Nogami, director of ALIVE, explains that efforts to change the situation have gone unheeded for too long.

Nogami is calling for reforms to change the Animal Protection Law, which critics call toothless anyhow. Changes in the law would force Japan’s zoos, pet shop owners and other businesses using animals for entertainment, to be more responsible and humane in caring or animals.

For example, she points out that in bear parks, food is sold to visitors against Japanese guidelines. The bears, crowded in their pits, fight with one another to get the food, and these scenes amuse onlookers.

“There are no regulations in Japan that enforce penalties on people who harm animals or not care for them,” Nogami pointed out.

The situation is particularly worrying as Japan is the world’s largest market for most exotic wildlife. The government has not established laws, but only guidelines that recommend that businesses that hold animals in captivity have welfare facilities.

Efforts by activists to publicise the abuse of animals have shocked the larger public, forcing the authorities to acknowledge the situation.

”There is no doubt that it is better to have larger enclosures for animals in captivity,” Takashi Sakaguchi, an official in charge of wildlife at the Environment Ministry, admitted in an interview. ”But it is going to be difficult to do this in Japan, where land is restricted.”

Sakaguchi explains that the lack of scientific standards for keeping animals in captivity also makes it difficult to establish strict regulations in Japan.

”The government can only ask zoos and other places keeping animals to take the most care of the animals because it is hard to force a standard given the various local conditions around the country,” he added.

But this attitude is exactly the reason for the sad plight of animals in Japan, critics argue.

Japan has currently 824 bears in these parks, most of them domestic, but also imported species such as polar bears from Canada.

Bear parks are highly lucrative. One of the largest, Noboribetsu in Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island, charges 23 dollars per visitor and recorded 450,000 visitors last year.

Japan currently has 93 registered zoos and 68 aquariums in the country. However, activists say, laws are such that anybody can start a zoo or safari park without a proper licence.

As a result, says Nogami, most of Japan’s zoos are badly neglected. In a bid to be competitive, zoos are now putting priority in on breeding programmes, which are in truth not necessary given the small enclosures for these animals.

Ueno Zoo, Japan’s oldest zoo, is spending millions of dollars on a panda breeding mission. A giant female panda arrived from Mexico a few weeks ago to mate with its lone male counterpart, one in a series of measures taken by the zoo to keep its bears there.

ALIVE has also conducted surveys on Japanese snow monkeys in zoos that show they have been killed indiscriminately or supplied for experiments in a bid to keep their numbers down.

Meantime, the Japan Zoo Association reports that a proposal to ensure animal enrichment, such as the creation of suitable environments and the promotion of natural behaviour, like allowing animals to take of their young while in captivity, is now being considered to time with the new fiscal year in April 2004.

“With media and public pressure, there are steps toward reforms,” said an official who declined to be named.

Overall and despite the popularity of selected zoos, Japanese zoos have been reporting steady declines in visitors, a drop of 20 million visitors in the past decade.

Officials link the decrease to the large number of new entertainment facilities that have sprung up across the country. But activists contend that the decline is the due to the bad management of zoos.