On November 17, 2022, Maidona News distributed a report on the activities of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government regarding the protection of cats.

The project has been welcomed by many protection volunteers.

According to the article – The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has launched the “Consultation and Support System Improvement Project in Local Communities,” which includes animal welfare, from 2020. The project is designed not only to protect stray cats, but also to provide consultation and support for those who have lived with cats until now but have difficulty keeping them due to health reasons.

The subsidy program is for a limited time only, with each municipality receiving up to 30 million yen over a three-year period, with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government covering 10/10 of the costs until the shelter cats are adopted. During the three-year period, each municipality will assess the needs of its residents, and after that, each municipality will secure its own budget.

There are 62 local communities in Tokyo, but Chiyoda Ward and Tama City are the only ones using the subsidies at this time. Tama City has included it in its budget for FY2022 as a “Project to protect animals that are difficult to continue to keep and to support the protection and adoption of homeless cats.

Hiromi Izawa, representative of the NPO Catsavior, cat shelter in Tama City, and Tama City Councilor Takayuki Tojo teamed up to collect data on the cost of shelter cats, as well as various issues related to cats, such as the animal hoarding and difficulties in keeping them, and submitted the data to the Tama City Council.  All that hard work finally came to fruition and the program will be included in the budget for fiscal 2022, and will provide support up to 400 yen per day per shelter cat for everything from spay/neuter expenses to transportation costs to veterinary hospitals, and of course, food and supplies.

Following this, Toshima Ward has announced that it will implement a project to develop a consultation support system for animals in the Toshima Ward area from October 2023 to 2025. The outline of the process involves screening for registration as an organization to receive subsidies, applying for protection of dogs and cats, examining the health of dogs and cats rescued by cooperating vets, looking for new home (adoption), and reporting on results when adoption is successful.

WDA hope that other municipalities will learn from Tama City’s early efforts as a role model and implement this project throughout Japan as soon as possible!

NPO Catsavior: https://catsavior.com/

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