164 Starving Dogs Crammed Into Tiny House in Japan; Shocking Video Raises Questions

Often negated as a weird human habit, pet hoarding is a burgeoning issue that seemingly needs to be addressed. One such case was reported in Japan where dogs were starved and confined to a small space.

Japanese health officials were horrified to discover an extreme case of animal hoarding in the city of Izumo in western Japan on Wednesday. Reuters reported 164 dogs, covered in parasites and highly emaciated, were found stuffed into a tiny house in the city.

The dreadful scenario came to light when the neighbours complained about the hoarding in a 30-square metre house. The dogs were found stuffed inside the house and some were even crammed under shelves, tables and chairs.

The shocking footage released by the welfare society showed malnourished dogs with jutted bones climbing on each other and all of them covered in faeces.

Kunihisa Sagami, the head of animal rights group Dobutsukikin, said the issue came to their attention in mid-October when the neighbours complained. “The entire floor was filled with dogs and all the floor space you could see was covered with faeces,” Sagami said, according to the Hindustan Times.

The members of the house explained the extreme situation happened because they could not afford to sterilize the dogs. They stated this resulted in an uncontrolled increase in the number of dogs, the report added.

Health officials admitted they had received complaints in the past about the house owners' habit of hoarding dogs. The neighbours had complained about the bad smell and noise from the house, and officials had visited the house seven years ago, but they were reportedly not let inside by the three people living there.

Sagami said his charity would find foster homes for the dogs after the family agreed to give them up.

“There is a tendency … to treat issues around animals lightly, but if we don’t approach the owners of these pets with a view to providing welfare, then we can’t solve the problem,” a local government official said, reported The Guardian.

Not just dogs, but cats are also often victims to hoarding in Japan.

Chizuko Sato, an animal support volunteer described the state of a room in a wooden apartment building in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward in August 2019. "There were 163 cats shut up inside a packed, 11-square-meter space. It was like a sauna. The room absolutely stank of their waste, and the walls were rotting," she said, reported The Mainichi.

American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals defines animal hoarding as the inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter and veterinary care often resulting in animal starvation, illness and death.