<figure id="attachment_468977" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468977" style="width: 2916px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="63e64975"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/8173b3c97ada342c11baefe1b04a6c54-1.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-468977" class="wp-caption-text">The scene of the abandonment of a large number of animals photographed seven years ago at a facility in Furukawa City (image provided by the Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).</figcaption></figure>
<h2><span class="strongInContent"> The stench and carcasses of more than 30 animals litter the interior.</span></h2>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The organization was supposed to have a noble philosophy of &#8220;saving the unspeakable animals&#8221; and &#8220;protecting dogs that have lost their way.</span></p>
<p> A representative of an animal welfare organization that supposedly upheld such noble principles was keeping and killing dogs and cats in a secret room filled with numerous carcasses and a foul odor.</p>
<p> On May 22, 2014, Rumi Marunouchi, 47, the representative director of the general incorporated association &#8220;Home for Protected Dogs and Cats: Nanachan&#8217;s Home,&#8221; was arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of violating the Animal Protection Law (abuse). He denied some of the charges based on his own experience, saying, &#8220;I regret that I kept the dogs in a poor environment,&#8221; but &#8220;there was no need to take them to a hospital right away.</p>
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<p> When one hears of an animal welfare organization&#8217;s base of operations, one might imagine a place where animals await their new families in a clean environment. However, Marunouchi&#8217;s home in Shinagawa Ward was a bizarre place far removed from such common sense.</p>
<p> When investigators entered the house, they found dead cats and dogs and filth everywhere, and &#8220;there was no place to step. The concentration of ammonia in the room was &#8220;133ppm,&#8221; far exceeding the standard (1ppm) of the Offensive Odor Control Law. This is a level that is harmful to human health.</p>
<p> What surprised investigators more than anything else were the bones and corpses of at least 30 dogs and cats lying around the room. There were even traces of dogs and cats that had not been adequately fed, or that had survived and eaten the carcasses.</p>
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<p> Half of the 39 animals were sick with eye and other diseases, but had not received proper treatment. The feces accumulated, dried, and flew up as dust and dirt, which adhered to their eyes and damaged their corneas. Marunouchi suspects,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He also stated that &#8220;the cost of cremation was too high, so I left the carcasses there,&#8221; and &#8220;I installed a toilet, but it was destroyed, and it became ridiculous to clean it up.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> The suspects stated that the cost of cremation was too high and they left the corpses to die. How did a place that was supposed to save lives turn into such a wretched mess?</p>
<p> Marunouchi stated that the suspect &#8220;kept a maximum of 70 animals at the same time,&#8221; and it is clear that the place had fallen into a &#8220;multi-population collapse&#8221; that was beyond the control of any one individual.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> According to the statement, he believes that one of the factors that exacerbated the situation was the departure of his son, who was his closest collaborator. The suspect, Marunouchi, is unable to drive a car. When he went to protect the dog, he asked his son, who lived with him, to drive. He told the police, &#8220;My son left home and I had to take care of the dog by myself. It seems that the dog bit him on the hand several times, and he got fed up with helping the dog and left home.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Past undercover investigations into animal abuse"></div>
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<h2><span class="strongInContent">7</span><span class="strongInContent"> A fellow member from two years ago talks about the drop-off between her then and now.</span></h2>
<p> It is not difficult to imagine the financial burden as well as the physical burden of having to handle an enormous number of dogs and cats on one&#8217;s own. Many animal welfare organizations rely on donations from their supporters to fund their operations, but the reality is that as the number of dogs and cats they have increases, this will no longer be enough to cover their expenses.</p>
<p> Dogs are required by law to be vaccinated against rabies once a year, and the medical checkup alone costs 3,000 to 4,000 yen per dog. Surgery and hospitalization can run into the hundreds of thousands of yen. It is inevitable that facilities with many sick shelter dogs will not be able to operate with the medical expenses alone.</p>
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<p> They have run out of funds and manpower, and they do not have a car, so they cannot take their dogs to the hospital. It is easy to guess that Rumi Marunouchi was trapped in such a situation.</p>
<p> Akiko Fujimura, president of the Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a non-profit general incorporated association, cannot hide her surprise at the arrest.</p>
<p> She said that about seven years ago, the Marunouchi suspect was a colleague who helped her infiltrate the scene of another malicious multiple-animal collapsing incident in Koga City, Ibaraki Prefecture.</p>
<p> The facility in Koga City was a non-profit organization that displayed banners saying &#8220;animal welfare&#8221; and &#8220;no killing&#8221; at the entrance and exit. The reality, however, was that more than 100 dogs and cats had been placed in a poor environment where excrement had accumulated, and they were in a state of serious neglect, with no necessary health care. Mr. Fujimura recalls the horrific conditions at the time of the facility, whose representative was eventually sent to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the Animal Protection Law.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The house was a two-story building, but the dogs in their cages were still dressed in their clothes, stained black, and their eyes were completely white. We had to put three masks on top of each other to get in because of the smell. There were also a lot of dead rats on the floor. &#8230;&#8230;&#8221;</span></p>
<p> In response to these poor conditions, Fujimura and other volunteer members infiltrated the facility under the guise of volunteers and continued their own investigation. One of the volunteers who was at the forefront of this undercover investigation was the suspect Marunouchi. Based on the video evidence they collected, they filed a criminal complaint with the police, which was accepted, leading to a raid of the facility and the filing of charges against the representative.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> I went undercover many times to the facility in Koga City, and Ms. Marunouchi was helping me along. There was a Chihuahua with a bloated and limp stomach, and he took me to the veterinary clinic on his own dime, saying, &#8216;I&#8217;ll pay for it myself, can I take it? He seemed like a very good person to me. &#8230;&#8230;&#8221; (Fujimura)</span></p>
<p> When did the Marunouchi suspect, who had a strong sense of justice, go wrong? Mr. Fujimura confides that he sensed a &#8220;gap&#8221; between Marunouchi&#8217;s personality and his recent social networking activities.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He said that Marunouchi &#8220;takes everything into his own hands and doesn&#8217;t want to rely on others. When I met her seven years ago, she didn&#8217;t seem at all flashy, but when I looked at her recent Facebook page, she seemed to be a different person. She may have changed somehow,&#8221; said Fujimura.</span></p>
<p> While ostensibly displaying her glamorous friendships on social networking sites, dogs and cats were dying at home without receiving adequate medical care.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" What is &quot;Animal Police&quot;?"></div>
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<h2><span class="strongInContent">The Pathology of Animal Overcollection (Animal Hoarding)</span></h2>
<p> Why do people who are so dedicated to the protection of animals end up abusing them themselves? Mr. Fujimura points out that there are many cases in which people protect animals out of the goodness of their hearts and ultimately end up in a dead-end situation.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In the U.S., this kind of situation is called a &#8220;hoarder&#8221; situation. In the U.S., this kind of situation is called &#8216;hoarding&#8217; and is considered a kind of mental pathology. They try to handle the situation on their own, and perhaps not wanting to cause problems, they even hide the carcass inside the house.</span></p>
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<p> In order to prevent such a situation from occurring, local governments in some areas in the U.S. have established &#8220;animal police,&#8221; which are specialized units with the authority to investigate animal abuse, and have a system in place to promptly enter and protect animals if abuse is suspected. In contrast, in Japan, the authority and manpower of the animal administration are limited, making it difficult for the local government to intervene immediately even if it recognizes abnormalities. In fact, in the area around this home, there were reports of squealing and fecal matter as early as last December, but it took nearly six months for the situation to be resolved.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> There is no animal police in Japan. Even if a public health center notices an abnormality in a large number of animals and instructs the owner, it is practically impossible to take in all 50 to 60 dogs and cats. Because there are no receptacles, the government cannot intervene aggressively, and the situation is overlooked and is getting worse and worse,&#8221; said Fujimura.</span></p>
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<p> In a Japanese system where the government cannot step in immediately, lives that have lost their way quietly disappear in the stench and filth. 7 years ago, the genuine kindness of Marunouchi, the suspect who gave his own money to save a limp Chihuahua, was undoubtedly genuine. &#8230;&#8230;</p>
<p> However, if we continue to shelter animals without a plan based only on a temporary feeling of &#8220;pity,&#8221; it will eventually lead to such a horrific collapse. Where did Mr. Marunouchi lose sight of the weight of responsibility in taking care of the lives of animals that cannot speak?</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Images of the horrific scene of the abandonment of a large number of animals"></div>
<figure id="attachment_468980" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468980" style="width: 2914px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3a840a9c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/b0b22946c1bcaaac3e69f36c76d207bc.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-468980" class="wp-caption-text">The interior of a two-story single-family house with a collapsed multi-cat population, photographed seven years ago (Image: Courtesy of the Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_468981" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468981" style="width: 2918px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="fc8550d2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/bab0bcbd93ec4e60fff19e552dad7624.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-468981" class="wp-caption-text"> As the image credit shows, the management system was extremely sloppy (Image: Courtesy of the Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_468982" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468982" style="width: 2442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3e5c05c7"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/a63d891ab0a5ca25c86ff510600325d4.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-468982" class="wp-caption-text"> The facility claimed to be an animal shelter, but in reality it was an abuse facility (Image: Courtesy of the Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)</figcaption></figure>


 Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

 On May 22, a woman representing an animal welfare group was arrested on suspicion of violating the Animal Protection Law (abuse). The bones and carcasses of more than 30 dogs and cats were lying around the facility. What happened to the woman who used to be an active animal rescuer?

Stench and a room littered with the carcasses of more than 30 dead animals: How an arrested animal rights group representative led to the collapse of a multi-catcher farm.

Stench and a room littered with the carcasses of more than 30 dead animals: How an arrested animal rights group representative led to the collapse of a multi-catcher farm.

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