TOKYO -- As there have been increasingly serious cases of cruelty to dogs, cats and other pets in Japan, veterinary forensic specialists who carry out autopsies on dead animals play a significant role in investigations amid a police crackdown on malicious cases. The Mainichi Shimbun sat down with Aki Tanaka, 48, a lecturer at Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University who is among the few people who study the specialized field of veterinary forensics in the country, to ask her about the reality of animal abuse and their investigations.

       Almost every day, Tanaka's laboratory receives autopsy requests for cats, dogs, birds and other animals suspected to have been abused from police nationwide who question whether these creatures died from traffic accidents or abuse.

       In the autumn of 2019, the dead body of a cat, which was apparently found at a baseball field, was brought into Tanaka's lab by police in the Kanto region. Although it did not have any noticeable external injuries, seven or eight cats were also found dead in the nearby area.

       A session to hand over rescue cats to those wishing to adopt them takes place at a hardware store in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, on Sept. 5, 2021. (Mainichi/Hayato Narisawa)

       An autopsy found that there were bruises all over the cat's body beneath its skin. Its internal organs were damaged, and the cat lost great amounts of blood. It had been struck multiple times with a blunt object. Tanaka estimated the time of the assault from the state of the food in the cat's stomach, as well as the extent to which rigor mortis had set in. She said that police then found a suspicious figure in security camera footage after they inspected it based on the autopsy results.

       "We're dealing with animals who cannot speak. I make sure that I do not overlook even the tiniest of findings," Tanaka said emphatically.

       As the skin of animals is thicker than humans' and is covered in fur, bruises do not easily remain on the body even if they are attacked. If the external injuries are concentrated in a partial area, it is increasingly likely that they were subject to abuse, but it is said to be difficult to ascertain this, even with experience.

       Tanaka lived in the U.K. from the fifth grade to her second year in junior high school, due to her father's work. She had opportunities to visit local animal shelters in the country, and decided on her goal to become a veterinarian after being shocked that dogs and cats were being handed to their new owners. That was because she had always thought that dogs and cats without owners were all put down. What she saw there -- animals in shelters finding new families -- was what got her wanting to do work related to animals without owners.

       Aki Tanaka, lecturer at Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, is seen in the Tokyo suburban city of Musashino on Nov. 30, 2021. (Mainichi/Takuya Suzuki)

       Following her return to Japan, Tanaka graduated from the Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University in 1998. In 2001, she studied abroad at the University of California, Davis, which has a shelter medicine program for studying ways to medically examine animals and manage their health, and acquired the knowhow of veterinary forensics.

       In Japan, autopsies to identify animal abuse had rarely been carried out. In 2014, Tanaka joined the Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University as a researcher, and currently serves as a lecturer for the institution. She has dissected several hundred corpses at her lab, and among them, around 70% to 80% have apparently been confirmed to have had signs of abuse.

       Investigators place their trust in veterinary forensic specialists like Tanaka and consider them an "extremely important presence" as "cases cannot be determined by police alone, and autopsies by veterinarians become the starting point for investigations in many cases."

       However, there are only a handful of veterinarians who have studied veterinary forensics in Japan, and fostering human resources has been a challenge. Tanaka, who created the Japanese Association of Veterinary Forensics, has collaborated with the Ministry of the Environment to hold training sessions targeting veterinarians and has engaged in efforts to spread veterinary forensics across the country. She said, "I'd like to create a solid system to raise veterinarians who have acquired forensics skills."

       There has been a rise in the number of people who keep dogs and cats as pets as they seek comfort at home amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Japan Pet Food Association, the number of dogs newly kept in 2020 was 462,000, up 14% from the previous year, while the number for cats was 483,000, a 16% increase. The association said, "The tally for 2020 grew at the greatest rate in the past five years, and the number of pets being kept during the year was also the highest. The coronavirus seems to be an influencing factor."

       Meanwhile, according to the National Police Agency (NPA), the number of arrests or crackdowns by nationwide police on suspected violations of the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals has been on the rise since 2010, which saw 33 such cases. In 2020, there were 102 cases, the second highest figure following the 105 cases in 2019. The NPA is of the view that a rise in public awareness on animal protection has led to the increased number of reports being filed with police.

       The Act on Welfare and Management of Animals was amended in June 2020, and the legal punishment for killing or wounding pets without reason was raised from "imprisonment with labor for two years or less, or a fine of 2 million yen or less" to "imprisonment with labor for five years or less, or a fine of 5 million yen or less." Moreover, veterinarians who were asked to make the effort to report cases of suspected abuse to related agencies are now required to report cases.

       (Japanese original by Takuya Suzuki, Tokyo City News Department)

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