In Japan, around 400,000 dogs and cats are killed at public health centers every year. Most are taken there by their owners for "unavoidable reasons," as the owners put it. What that means is that the owners are going on a trip and won't be home to care for the pet, or they're just tired of taking care of it, or the pet got sick. The reasons go on and on.
I strongly believe that a pet's life should not be ended for such inconsiderate excuses. People do not actually know how dogs and cats at public health centers are "put to sleep." Many people believe that animals are euthanized. Not so. They are put in a stainless-steel box into which is pumped carbon dioxide: The poor things suffocate to death, dying in agony.
We should have ethics classes that teach the sanctity of life during a child's years of compulsory education. If such classes had been taught, maybe the "Sakakibara crime" -- in which a young man, who as a boy tortured animals, killed several children by beheading them -- would not have happened.
Children can learn the importance of life through animals. With more ethics education and information on how pets are disposed of at public health centers, there might be a decline in the number of people who are barbarous to animals and who get rid of their pets for "unavoidable reasons."
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