Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Tashirojima: 'Cat Island' Safe After Tsunami
Share:
by Jordan Yerman | March 14, 2011 at 02:52 pm
7117 views | 3 Recommendations | 5 comments
Tashirojima: Cat Island Survives Japan Tsunami
Cat lovers pondered the fate of Tashirojima (Cat Island), famous for its huge feline population. Apparently Tashirojima was totally submerged by the tsunami, but, according to lovemeow, most of Cat Island's human and feline inhabitants survived the deluge.
Boats are unable to ferry supplies to Tashirojima, so transport by helicopter must be arranged. (Tashirojima map)
The Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support posted this message to their Facebook page:
"Just to give everyone an update on Tashirojima, the cat island. The people and cats are safe but short of food. A volunteer looked into transporting food by boat, but the is too much debris in the water. A helicopter is the only way. The army will probably get a helicopter ready soon so we are looking into the possibility of asking them to take cat food too."
Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support is a coalition formed by HEART-Tokushima, Animal Garden Niigata and Japan Cat Network.
How Tashirojima Became Cat Island
Tashirojima's small population of fishermen believed that cats would bring good luck in the form of big catches, so cats were nurtured and any animal that was anti-cat (for example... dogs) were unwelcome. Tashirojima's population has been dwindling, as people either retire or move to the mainland. Most visitors to Cat Island are tourists, rather than those keen on keeping up the island's fishing tradition.
The damage done to Tashirojima will be devastating, and will require volunteers from the mainland just to get the tiny island in the position to restart its economy.
Below you can find some footage of Cat Island before the tsunami, just to get an idea of what it's like.
Photos
(Amy Judd, this one's for you!)
Videos
Advertisement
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Most Recommended Comment
Crowd Power
Jordan Yerman
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canadayugoroyd
Japanhirano_sui
Japan
Recommendations (3)
Anonymous users (3)
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
- Sign In or Join to post comments
Meow (not verified)at 17:32 on March 15th, 2011
Relief! I'm glad the cats and people of Tashirojima are okay. What a special place. I wonder if the reason why the population is okay is because the kitties had advanced warning and went to higher ground? "God" bless the kitties and people of Japan. Sending you all positive vibes and love.
- Sign In or Join to post comments
Critter Chitter (not verified)at 21:37 on March 15th, 2011
I hope someone delivers cat food & water to the island - ASAP !
- Sign In or Join to post comments
Kristine05 (not verified)at 21:37 on March 15th, 2011
I’m so happy to hear that most of them are safe and that Cat Island wasn’t submerged by the tsunami.God bless people who love & help animals & I hope all the lost will be found.
- Sign In or Join to post comments
ilovekittycat (not verified)at 08:59 on March 16th, 2011
I am extremely happy when I heard that Cat Island
- Sign In or Join to post comments
Charles Jannuzi (not verified)at 06:18 on April 2nd, 2011
News about the famous 'Cat Island' (Tashirojima) which was isolated after the earthquake-tsunami disaster in NE JapanI sent this note to Nohl Rosen of Cat Galaxy Mediaand thought I would share it here on my cat blog:----------------------------They have re-connected parcel service delivery to the Cat Island, and the 350 people and 100 cats (and 3 dogs) have requested, rice, retort pouch food (I was thinking US Army MREs would be ideal to send if I could get a hold of some), and dry cat and dog food. I guess with 100 cats, they need quite a bit. But the catch is, there are restrictions--1/3 of every shipment can be for animals, but 2/3s has to be designated for humans.I thought about contacting the one NPO there and asking if I could send them something I ordered from Amazon Japan or Rakuten or Yoyo market and have it shipped by Yamato. Yamato, you will love this, is known as Kuroneko Takkyubin--Blackcat Delivery!----------------------------My idea is to contact the NPO that helps to run the place and see if they could use a shipment of cat food. Overseas shipments of pet food are problematic because you need an importing license for commercial purposes to do this (and many large pet food companies have distributors here in Japan). However, I plan to mailorder at Amazon Japan or Rakuten or Yoyo Market (which can supply from Costco Japan). The NPO's information is here: NPO法人 ひょっこりひょうたん田代島 (NPO Hyokkori Hyoutan Tashirojima)〈事務局〉(Office)〒986-0023 宮城県石巻市大字田代浜字仁斗田38番地(Azazushi Hakaruta Banchi 38, Ooaza Tashirohama, Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture 986-0023)TEL 0225-21-4123FAX 0225-21-4122E-Mail tasirojima@aol.com