On April 24th the Fukushima government decided to euthanize farm animals who were severely ill, injured or in distress within a 20 km (12 mile) radius (the no go zone) of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
In this area there are 376 farm animal facilities holding 870 dairy cattle, 2500 beef cattle, 100 horses, 30,000 pigs and 630,000 chickens. The number of animals to be euthanized is uncertain. On April 25th the prefectural staff will start disposing of animals by permission of their owners.
We are urging the Japanese government to capture as many healthy farm animals as possible and relocate them to public or private farms after radioactive decontamination procedures have been carried out.
A very large number of farm animals in this area have already died due to dehydration and starvation. (see the photo / Photos copyright : Dr.Imamoto.)
Some farm animals are roaming and are presumably still healthy.
