Text: Andreas Knobel, photos: ARK

ARK received a phone call this spring by a woman in Osaka who said that the owner of a pet shop had apparently gone away and the animals left without food or water, and could ARK come and do something about it?

Shop front	X	One of ARK's volunteers cleaning the cages
X
Excrement on one of the cage's floors	X	Dogs in bird cages

Well, the owner had in fact not gone anywhere but conditions at the pet shop were abysmal. Dogs locked into tiny cages were stacked outside in the blistering Osaka summer heat. The cages had not been cleaned in a long time, so the dogs were forced to stand in their own excrement.

ARK contacted the health authorities who (as usual) said there was nothing they could do (hence the need for a new animal welfare law) and started negotiations with the owner. Finally he agreed to let some of the dogs go (the cheap ones--he never showed us the more luxurious ones inside), they were taken to ARK, and some have already found an owner!