Cruelty to Pets

[FoodieSam]

I was watching Chi's Sweet Home, which is a super cute anime, and it was talking about apartments that don't allow pets in Japan. Then I ended up on the Internet, looking up things, and after following a bunch of links, as you do, I found an article (I linked it below). It sounds like there's a lot of cruelty to pets in Japan, which seemed really strange to me because they seem to value nature and they like cute things. But this article (which is quite long, so I'm summarising) mentioned pet hoarders (which I guess happens in various countries), balcony breeders (who also try to keep lots of pets in a small space), owners causing their pets health problems because of pet fashions and pet clothes, and the euthanasia of thousands of strays using CO2, which isn't a humane way to do it. I've also read in places that pet shops in Japan keep the animals in small cages.
I'm a bit shocked, to be honest. How can animal rights be so far behind in Japan?

[minervasirius]

Daym! I was able to watch a few minutes of the TV Show Hoarders, most are into keeping things to the point that the whole house becomes a trash bin. Another hoarder kept lots of cats that the whole house stunk of urine and feces. This problem is usually psychological, like they become emotionally attached to the materials because it reminds them of a memory of a loved one they lost ie this book was given to me by my mother, this bottle was what I drank from when my brother was still alive. For those who kept a lot of pets, it's usually their way to compensate for their loss so that they won't feel lonely.

I too am shocked when I read that article, because was there really no way to just give those pets for adoption? I know they did so because those pets are becoming health hazards to the people. Maybe they just didn't want to do the hardwork of nursing those pets back to health so they can give it for adoption, hence kinda "lazy" let's just euthanize them all and get over with it.

[minervasirius]

I read an article on the Internet way back late 90s-early 2000 about FBI's psychological profiling of serial killers. Among their markers on how one becomes a serial killer is :
1. Traumatic childhood - ie seeing their mother always beaten by their fathers. their parents raped them etc.
2. Cruelty to animals during their childhood.
etc etc
But those first two are the ones they noticed most in almost all serial killers.
They found that normal children take care of pets,love them and areas in the brain concerning emotion is active.
For children who are cruel to pets, the area responsible for emotions in the brain have little to no activity.
For serial killers, the areas of the brain concerning emotion doesn't get activated. It's as if they don't have those areas in the brain at all.