Why are Japanese torturing cats and posting the videos online?
As Japanese police record a spike in animal abuse, a proliferation of online videos depicting the torture of cats has activists demanding Tokyo tighten its laws
When Tokyo police eventually arrested Makoto Oya, a seemingly respectable tax counsellor from Saitama City, he attempted to justify pouring scalding water over stray cats and torturing them to death with a blowtorch.
“The excrement and urine of cats smells bad,” he told the officers who took him into custody. “They have sharp nails that are designed to injure. I did not realise that exterminating these sorts of harmful animals was a violation of the law.”
Oya, 52, was charged in August of last year with violating the Animal Protection Law. He is believed to have abused at least 13 stray cats in the eight months before he was arrested. Nine cats died, the rest were severely injured.
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Police were able to find him because he had recorded the torture sessions and uploaded the footage to an anonymous video-sharing site. Police tracked him down after a member of the public alerted them to the videos.
Animal-rights activists have now set their sights on convincing the government to outlaw the uploading of such cruel videos on the internet. They are also lobbying to increase punishments for anyone found guilty of intentionally causing harm or distress to animals.
Thanks in part to that pressure, a cross-party group of politicians is trying to bolster Japan’s animal-cruelty laws, and may introduce stronger legislation in coming months.
From the outset, prosecutors demanded a 22-month prison sentence for Oya on the grounds that he had found “immense joy in tormenting the cats”. Oya’s defence team called for a suspended prison term because he had suffered “social sanctions”, including losing his job and being ostracised by society.
