The report closely observes the sheltering of unloved, disposable hounds that are “shot in the legs so they won’t come after you.

Hounds that had been slaughtered

Hounds are one with hunters. The image of hounds and their owners as having a strong and special bond may be an illusion created by the general public.

Hounds are abandoned because they have become ill, because they are old and no longer desire to hunt, or because it is too hard to keep them until the next hunting season. It is unbelievable at first glance.

A hunter I know lost his pointer and asked me to help him find it. I looked at the intake information at the prefectural animal welfare center and found the pointer. In the end, it was not his pointer, but I went to help him. When I went to the welfare center, I was surprised to see many other purebreds, including pointers and setters. It was obvious that they were birdhounds. At the time, service dogs were not eligible for transfer, so these were dogs that had been slaughtered. I learned about this reality.

Rie Kaneko, the representative of “Gundog Rescue Caci (CACI)” in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, explains. Ms. Kaneko was originally involved in dog protection activities in the “collapsed multi-pet household” case in the Sanbanze area of Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, in the 1990s. However, when she learned about the abandonment of birdhounds and the situation where they were not transferred from welfare centers and were being killed, she thought, “Let’s take the initiative to protect dogs that have few chances to be rescued! I will not let birdhounds become disposable! We will not let birdhounds become disposable! Since 2008, the organization has specialized in the protection and transfer of birdhounds. The “Gundog” in the organization’s name is another name for birdhound.

At the animal welfare center where I went to see the dogs, there was a small dog and a pointer in the same room. I saw the pointer take aim when the small dog moved, so I immediately had the small dog released. I told them that if the owner didn’t show up after the 7-day deadline, I would take both the pointer and the boy back. Although the facility was called “welfare,” it was a facility for disposal, not for rescue, so on the first day, all the dogs and puppies were put in the same room. We decided that the small dogs were dangerous because they would react to any movement and bite.

Hounds that were no longer needed were fed food mixed with poison…

Chiba Prefecture is now depopulated in some areas, but at that time there were many families who kept dogs. The number of dogs, not only birdhounds, that were taken into custody and killed was one of the worst in the prefecture, and the sheer number must have made it difficult to deal with the situation in detail. Mr. Kaneko found that since the 1990s, Chiba Prefecture has had the largest number of protected birdhounds in Japan. What is the reason for this?

Chiba is not very mountainous, and there is a lot of flat land. It is a rich hunting ground, and bird hunting is very popular. It is easy to access from Tokyo, and I think that is why there are so many hunters.

How and where do birdhounds come to the center?

Many abandoned birdhounds are found on riverbanks, seashores, and fields. The staff at the center says, ‘You can’t catch birdhounds,’ because the dogs don’t come close to them. The reason is that if the dog is not the owner, it will run away. They can only be caught when they become weak and come near private homes.

Some of the birdhounds found or rescued may have run away or strayed during the hunt, and there have been times when CACI members have found a stray birdhound and contacted the owner at ……. The owner was able to bring the lost dog back because he had searched hard for it on social networking sites.

When I became involved in birdhound protection, I walked around and interviewed people, and I heard that people feed their unwanted hounds food laced with poison and then dump them in the mountains.

It is now against the law, but it seems that privately bred hounds were also being sold and bought. If there were no buyers there, they would go to ……. I also heard such a story. When I talked to hunters, some of the hounds were given away and kept by people they knew. I think there is a trend of people taking in surplus dogs without love and abandoning them as a result.

They are treated as mere “property.

There are hunters who have no love for their hounds. It is true that hounds are not pets. When I talk to them, I am surprised to learn that the family does not even know the name of the dog, and that it is just a dog for the father’s hobby.

It may be only a few hunters who abandon their birdhounds, but it is nothing more than a lack of moral standards for hunters.

I don’t think this problem can be solved without changing the mindset of hunters. When I explained the birdhound problem to a certain hunting association, they understood and agreed with me, and they are making efforts to educate people within the organization. I think that is a big step forward.

A Close Look at the Retraining Process

When a dog comes to the shelter from a shelter center, it must be retrained until it receives medical treatment for illness or injury, or until it is ready for further transfer. The dogs at the CACI shelter are fed and cared for individually by Ms. Kaneko and the volunteer staff. Each dog is also taken for a walk in the morning and evening. Walking the dogs was hard work.

Mera, the setter we actually interviewed for the walk, was sheltered and housed at the Ibaraki Prefectural Animal Guidance Center in June of this year. At the time of the interview, Mera had only been at the shelter for a little over a week. She was out for a walk on two leashes for safety reasons, but she walked ahead of Kaneko-san, pulling him along with her. Mela did not always turn around when Mr. Kaneko called out to her. It takes time and patience to build a new relationship of trust with a birdhound that originally had a one-on-one relationship with the hunter.

I have to call out to them and praise them every once in a while when they turn around,” she says.

During a walk in the park, the shelter dogs spot a gathering of five or six pigeons, and all of them approach in one low, jittery movement. They looked exactly like birdhounds.

When I see a pigeon, I’m glued to it. When they see a pigeon, they are glued to it, not to other dogs. Experts say that chasing pigeons is not a bad thing. When they go after prey, they don’t open their mouths and breathe with their chests, so they use their chest muscles, which they don’t use during a normal walk.

Since this breed was originally released into the wild to be exercised, a mere ordinary walk of one to two hours is not enough for a birdhound. They need to run, breathe using their chests, and so on. If they only get exercise, it will be difficult for them to communicate with people, so they also need to be allowed to use their brains. If we don’t first satisfy their need for exercise, and then train them indoors at the same time without unnecessary stimulation, they will not listen to us.

Too many birdhounds are abandoned.

Also, even with retraining, it is stressful to try to forcibly remove a dog’s natural personality. We have to accept the fact that they are not pet dogs.

Birdhounds are very instantaneous. We have to understand the dog and anticipate its behavior. The person who transfers the dog and keeps it also needs to do the same.”

At the time of the interview, the CACI shelter was sheltering four setters and two mongrels. At another facility that had been used as a shelter prior to that, it occupied the first and second floors of an apartment building and at one time housed up to 23 animals. Even after the current shelter was established, they were able to protect up to 20 dogs at a moment’s notice, all of which were birdhounds. It is not clear because the facility was damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake and lost much of its materials, but over the past 20 years, they have sheltered about 600 birdhounds.

Unfortunately, some of them met their end without being able to be sold,” he said. Recently, we have been protecting only about 20 or so dogs a year, and it is amazing that the number has decreased so much,” he also says. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of dogs abandoned in Kumamoto and Okayama prefectures that are used for hunting beasts instead of birds.

What is needed is the establishment of laws to prevent owners from abandoning their dogs. This is the most important thing. We are currently working to somehow make this happen.

Mr. Kaneko’s activities are steadily producing results, but there is still a long way to go.