Animal Aid

With Elizabeth Oliver, founder of Animal Refuge Kansai, set to speak at the Club this month, INTOUCH discovers how the shelter brightens the lives of both animals and owners.

Nemo is king of the house. At least, that’s the assessment of his owners.

“Everyone loves you so much,” says Kaaren Kunze, smiling at the 5-year-old Italian greyhound sitting on the lap of her 14-year-old daughter, Anna Quada.

There is something undeniably regal about Nemo as Anna pets the half-dozing dog.

Two years ago, though, Nemo was in a very different situation. Rescued from an elderly owner in Osaka, he was taken in by Animal Refuge Kansai (ARK). After being flown to Tokyo, he was placed in a foster home. Two weeks later, Kunze and Anna met him for the first time at an adoption event at the K9 Natural store in Omotesando.

Image by Donna Beeman: Elizabeth Oliver

“We walked in the room and guess who was the first dog that came up to Anna?” says Kunze with a laugh.

That was in July 2020, and while Nemo was always loving and friendly, it took about six months for him to settle into his new home.

“By then,” says Anna, “he knew what he could and couldn’t do, and he became like this.”

Nemo’s rehoming is exactly the kind of outcome ARK’s founder, Elizabeth Oliver, likes to see. Receiving upwards of 130 animals a year, many of them older and therefore more difficult to adopt out, ARK focuses not only on their welfare but also on educating visitors, volunteers and potential owners about pet ownership and the value of adoption over purchase.

“Most people in the UK, for example, don’t purchase pets from pet shops,” Oliver explains. “They adopt from shelters because they have learned about the issues around puppy mills and breeders. I think if more people here in Japan knew about these things, it would make a difference.”

Education, in fact, was the motivating force behind Oliver’s founding of ARK in 1990. Arriving in Japan for the first time in 1965, she eventually adopted a dog from a shelter run by another international resident in Kobe and later started volunteering there. Growing up on a dairy farm in Somerset in Britain, Oliver had a natural affinity with animals.

“It was at that shelter that I learned how dogs in Japan are thrown away and about the puppy mills here,” Oliver says. “Even at that shelter where I was volunteering, they were euthanizing most of the dogs that came in. I thought there must be a better way.”

Oliver’s idea was a simple one: offer education around animal welfare issues and teach people how to properly care for their pets. From the beginning, ARK took in animals from owners no longer able to care for them as well as those rescued from breeders and puppy mills.

Oliver was still learning the ropes of running a not-for-profit, animal welfare organization when a massive earthquake struck Kobe in the early hours of January 17, 1995. More than 6,000 people were killed and more than 45,000 were left homeless. ARK immediately offered its services and took in around 600 pets whose owners were either missing or could no longer care for them.

“That was a watershed moment for us,” Oliver says. “We took in so many animals, trained volunteers and hired new staff.”

Oliver realized that the organization would need to develop its operations.

“The earthquake crisis only lasts for a year or so,” she says. “It doesn’t last forever, but the animals stay with us even after that crisis is over. It’s a long-term care commitment and therefore a long-term expenditure to keep them healthy and safe.”

Space, trained volunteers and funding all became crucial considerations.

“Love alone is not enough,” Oliver says of the resources needed to run any animal shelter.

Supported by a mix of monetary and in-kind donations, memberships, animal sponsorships and adoption fees, along with a team of volunteers to help staff, the work of ARK, Oliver says, is a community effort. To that end, the Tokyo ARK office was set up in 2005 to start outreach and adoption programs in the capital.

That’s how Tomomi Fujita, Connections’ former charities director, discovered ARK. Working at a global relocation company, she often fields questions about pets and volunteering opportunities from people moving to Japan.

“At ARK, there is no language barrier,” Fujita says. “I also found that ARK provides very good educational programming, like their visits to the International School of the Sacred Heart in Hiroo. They bring rescue dogs, and the kids can take them for a walk or pet them and learn about the dogs’ stories. So, when I was charities director for Connections, we started to talk about supporting ARK more to help rebuild their shelter on a bigger property.”

Image by Donna Beeman: Sasayama ARK staff and rescue dog

In 2019, Connections donated ¥300,000 to the organization. This was followed by ¥1 million in 2020 and ¥300,000 last year. The Library, meanwhile, started its own Christmas donation drive in 2018.
ARK’s Sasayama facility in Hyogo Prefecture sits on more than five acres of land in a secluded, picturesque valley. It includes a dog park, roomy kennels and housing for on-site staff. Plans for a cattery and other buildings are in the works.

“Groups from [the Club] have come to visit ARK to help and volunteer, which is positive for us and the animals as well as the visitors. I like to think of ARK as an international organization that just happens to be based in Japan. We have connections to people from everywhere, including those living here currently to those who now live abroad and have taken their pets with them.”

Education remains at the heart of the ARK ethos. Through adoption events, workshops and volunteer opportunities, the general public has the chance to learn about animal care and the role of rescue shelters in society.

Image: Library manager Drew Damron and ARK’s Nozomi Kakiuchi

“Educating people, especially children, about animal welfare is very important,” says Member Denise Tange, who used to sit on ARK’s board. “Many people don’t realize that buying an animal from a pet shop perpetuates a pernicious and abusive industry. Perhaps if people had a better understanding, it would help prevent abusive and careless treatment of animals.”

This is why ARK carries out such a rigorous vetting of potential adopters, Tange adds.

“ARK expects the adoptive home to be a happy, ‘forever home’ experience,” she says.

Anna Quada couldn’t agree more. Her experience visiting ARK and Nemo’s adoption have sparked an interest in making a difference for animals in the future.

“ARK was made to help animals find homes. They’re really driven by the animals and what’s good for them,” she says. “When we go back to the US, I’d like to help out at a shelter. I think it would be fun.”