Keynote Speech

Animal Rescue in the Wake of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
Shigekatsu ICHIDA Chairperson, The Great Earthquake Animal Rescue Memorial Association

Fifteen years have now passed since
the day that fateful day in January
1995 when the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake took the lives ofapproximately 6,500 people andseriously injured 10,683, while totally
destroying 104,906 houses, partiallydestroying 144,274, and completely
burning a further 7,036. In addition topeople, many animals were killed or harmed by theearthquake, which is estimated to have claimed the livesof 4,300 dogs and 5,000 cats alone. On January 20,
1995, the Tokyo Headquarters of the Great Hanshin
Earthquake Animal Rescue was established under theguidance of the Prime Ministerʼs Oﬃce, and on January
21, the Great Hanshin Earthquake Animal Rescue
Headquarters was established under the guidance andwith the cooperation of three animal welfare-relatedorganizations, namely, the Veterinary Association of
Hyogo Prefecture, the Veterinary Association of Kobe
City, and the Hanshin branch of the Japan Animal
Welfare Society (JAWS), together with Hyogo Prefecture
and Kobe City. Later these five organizations came
together to set up the Great Earthquake Animal Rescue
Memorial Association, which brings us up to the present.
At the time of the earthquake I was working as theDirector of the Kobe Animal Rescue Center. In the face ofthat totally overwhelming and unexpected event, ouranimal rescue efforts began in the midst of a chaoticsituation. I was extremely grateful for the guidance of Dr.
Baba, a veterinarian who quickly came to the site uponhearing that the animal rescue eﬀort was starting. At thetime, around half of the members of the Veterinary
Medical Association had suﬀered the partial destructionof their premises or worse. So we had to establish andoperate a rescue center at the Kobe City Animal and Pet
Management Center with about 30 members, which wasabout half of the full membership. It was a sudden
emergency, so we didnʼt have any time to prepare or any
ﬁnancial resources to draw upon and we were forced tomake use of whatever was available. We borrowed
plastic greenhouses from the Nishi Ward Agricultural
Cooperative and converted them into shelters byfollowing their instructions. When the information thatthe rescue center would be open from January 27 wasreleased, I was confronted with a situation I had neverexperienced before and this made me feel close to2

Keynote Speech

panicky. But we were able to overcome the situation
because we operated the rescue center in cooperation
with an army of volunteers who quickly came along tosupport our eﬀorts, including people from the veterinary
medical associations of other prefectures and fromanimal welfare organizations. All of these people broke
their backs trying to improve the lives of the animals in
our care even a little, such as by carrying relief supplies
to the tents, carrying food to shelters, mending any open
seams in the shelters, and even sleeping on cardboard on
the ﬂoors of corridors during the cold of winter. They did
all this because they understood how petrified therescued animals must have been since even the people
were severely shocked. This Rescue Headquarters wasconstructed by the volunteers who took care of theanimals, the veterinarians who treated them, and thelocal veterinary medical associations and animal welfareorganizations that supported these eﬀorts.
Because our activities were strongly supported by thepublic, we were able to gather a large number ofmonetary donations. But as April came around and withthe temperature rising, we found we were unable tocontinue in the same way we had been operating fromthe beginning. Accordingly, since there was an empty
space available near the Kobe City Animal and Pet
Management Center, we constructed three 2-story
prefabricated buildings for use as new shelters. Whenthese facilities were completed in the middle of May, theshelter environment improved dramatically and thenumber of cases of animal treatment declined equallydramatically. Somehow the animalsʼ spirits improved. We
had a certain amount of anxiety about handing overadult dogs and cats to new owners, but we were able toﬁnd new homes for a total of 1,045 animals. From thistime, the transfer of adult dogs came to be carried out at
the Kobe City Animal and Pet Management Center. In
order to rescue animals in need, the Animal Rescue
Headquarters and the Kobe City Animal and Pet
Management Center, centered the Veterinary Associationof Hyogo Prefecture, the Veterinary Association of Kobe
City, and the Hanshin Branch of JAWS and with thesupport of over 20,000 volunteers, conducted animal
rescue activities over a period of 16 months, took in
1,556 dogs and cats, and medically treated a total ofapproximately 8,000 animals. We deeply appreciate theenormous contributions made by so many people, as ouractivities could never have been carried out without theirsupport and cooperation.