Japan’s Odd Pet Trade

The country of Japan is well known for having some unusual pet practices. A few years ago the big news was that fish (mostly Betta fish) were being sold in tiny bags and worn as living decorations. Of course they died after a few days.

Pet stores in Japan sell animals as pets, that people in many other countries would require permits to own.  In the photo below you see an advertisement for a pet store called Zoo Japan.  How many of the pets on the sign do you recognize as common, or legal, pets where you live?

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Japan is also well known for selling pet Stag beetles and making them fight, of course if this were dogs most people in the west would cry “CRUELTY”.  Indeed, this was where Pokemon originated.  Poor things, but again, not the main focus of this link.

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Japans Oddest pet trade involves pet stores that open after midnight. In Japan there is a tradition of taking a girl out on a date, then going into the pet store, and buying her a pet.

Now, I do not profess to have witnessed this business first hand, but have heard about it from others, and recently read about it while looking for pictures on Flickr. In fact, you are more than welcome to click the links below the pictures I have included to read the comments by the photographers yourself.

In many cases these stores are in shady areas of town. In this photograph (below) the photographer reports these people are parading to draw attention to the opening of a new gentleman’s club, the title indicates that this is near the adult magazine store, and pet store.

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Below is the shot that caught my eye and the one that inspired this link.  The photographer wrote that the store was open after midnight for the purpose of allowing guys to buy pets for their dates.  It lot

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The picture below did not have a description, but it looks like it is a pet store, in the day time, and that it is closed.  This photograph, below, was taken in Japan, and certainly is not what most people in North America, or Europe, would normally think of as a typical pet store.

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So we might ask.. “What happens to all these pets?”  Japan is not known for stray animals running all over its streets, as in some third world countries.  Yet, it is unlikely that the girls keep all the pets given to them, so where are these critters?

I do not know the answer to this, it is a puzzle to me as well.  Perhaps they are returned to the pet store, probably at a loss, and resold, over and over.  It certainly is a very strange  custom, and one I hope does not spread.  Pets should be planned for and carefully selected, not picked up at a pet store on a whim, after a late night date.  They are a lifetime commitment.

Related Links

Crush Films

Who are you Supporting when you Buy from Pet Stores

What Happens to Puppies that Pet Stores Cannot Sell

What are Puppy Mills?