CNN: Fukushima's animals abandoned and left to die

[Amerigo Vespucci]

NOTE: There is also a video clip at the URL below.

Fukushima's animals abandoned and left to die
By Kyung Lah, CNN
updated 5:48 AM EST, Thu January 26, 2012



Inside Fukushima Exclusion Zone, Japan (CNN) -- When you stand in the center of Japan's exclusion zone, there is absolute silence. The exclusion zone is the 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, an area of high radiation contamination.

On March 12, the day after the quake and tsunami hit, 78,000 people were evacuated out of this area, believing they would return within a few days. As such, thousands of people left with their dogs tied up in the backyard, cats in their houses and livestock penned in barns.

Nearly a year later, animal carcasses litter the region.

Cows and pigs starved to death, their bones still in pens. Dogs dropped dead with disease. A cat skull sits on a neighborhood road.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/26/world/asia/fukushimas-animals-abandoned-and-left-to-die/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

[hedgehog]

1. I live 10 miles from three nuclear plants, just outside

the evacuation zone ( I guess radiation gets tired and can only travel that far!)

I have two dogs who are in the house right next to me. I have two cats who go outside to the barn or woods. I have chickens in the coop.

If I had to leave RIGHT NOW!, the dogs would go with me for sure. The cats would be with me if I could find them quickly. The best I could do for the chickens is leave their coop open.

I'm lucky, there are a lot of people around me boarding horses, raising cattle etc.

I'd like to see more stories of Fukishima almost a year later.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. I hear you...

...the story dropped from the front pages when the news was no longer "sensational." But I feel that the aftermath is the real news. The events that caused the current situation were just that...events...and while they may be newsworthy, I feel that the true news is what Japan did in the aftermath to rebound and move forward. The "story" is far from "over"...that's why I posted this.

[hedgehog]

4. I think the story dropped from the news because it was

never presented properly. I have a vague notion that two reactors shut down OK and two could still go very, very bad. However, I couldn't give you a general time line or any measure of the current hazard.

The story was further confused by claims of bad things happening that never panned out; a classic case of "crying wolf!" I think a lot of people don't realize that the point of that fable is that the wolf does eventually show up.

I agree with you that we need a good solid up-date.

[blogslut]

3. Here's an organization that's doing its best to save the animals

http://www.facebook.com/AnimalRescueJapan?sk=info

[Marnie]

6. Carrion eaters as well a prevailing winds will spread the radiation from these coprses.