Dog News

Wow Wow Dog Circus Educating Japanese Children About Shelter Dogs

by ADMIN

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Japan may have a booming pet industry but one area that is lacking is the adoption rates of shelter dogs. The Wow Wow Dog Circus, an advocacy group, is trying to change that and make adoption more popular.

The Japan Times reported that more than 204,000 pets in Japan were euthanized three years ago. “We need a system (for adopting abandoned dogs),” dog trainer Kayo Takeda said. “The sales at pet shops are very high, but overseas the choice to adopt a dog is much more prevalent. I’d like to hope that Japan will move forward in that direction.”

A large problem the shelters have is for the most part they are filled with older dogs. “Japanese people are in the habit of going to a pet shop and buying a puppy,” said deputy director of the Tokyo Animal Protection and Consultation Center, Hiroyuki Satake. “In Tokyo there are no puppies brought to the pound and so we only have adult dogs to rehome.”

The Wow Wow Dog Circus hopes to get more people excited about the idea of taking home a shelter dog.  They bring some of their talented shelter dogs to school and educate students about responsible animal ownership. The shelter dogs put on an impressive show skipping rope, performing on the balance bean and even balancing on a large circus ball. The main point of the show though is to educate the students and raise awareness for shelter dogs. The Wow Wow Circus hopes this education will help prevent dogs from being abandoned and also encourage people to consider shelter dogs that need good homes.