For my CIP, I volunteered at the Kyoto Animal Protecting Center. The building was brand new, but the shelter has been in Kyoto for decades. My supervisors were Mr. Kawano and Mr. Hirai, and I volunteered with Rin at the shelter. On the first day, Mr. Kawano gave us a lecture on the overview of stray animals in Japan, which I liked a lot because, during the presentation, Mr. Kawano asked our feelings towards the situation of stray animals in Japan and questions on our countries’ own shelters to make comparisons. It’s not only us who were learning from this CIP, but Mr. Kawano and Mr. Hirai were learning new things from us too. Our interaction with supervisors made me feel like I was not volunteering but making new friends at the shelter.
At the shelter, I walked the dogs, cleaned cat’s cages, helped puppies be socialized, and bathed puppies. We did not get to interact with cats a lot because it was not a cat’s breeding season. Every time we finished the work, Mr. Hirai discussed with us what we would like to do for the next time. Mr. Hirai let us try as many works as possible. Each dog had its own personality. Some of them liked to have human attention on them, so they barked quite a lot. Some of them bit, but only if we touched the parts that they did not like to be touched. The dogs and cats at the shelter were friendly and cute. Although Mr. Kawano said there might be some occasions that we have to watch dogs get euthanasia, we did not experience it once.
People who worked at the shelter did not speak English very well, which was great for us because we could practice our Japanese. After the first day, we realized there were many words and phrases we wanted to but did not know how to say in Japanese. We looked up the dictionary quite a lot to have a conversation with Mr. Hirai and learned new words every time.
This CIP was an amazing experience. Everything went smoothly. If letting me choose a CIP again, I would still choose this one. The environment of the shelter was very nice, clean, and comfortable. The people and animals were nice and friendly. I really enjoyed volunteering at the Kyoto Animal Protecting Center.
This sounds so interesting! Did you ever find it tough to volunteer though, since sometimes a lot of stray animals were abused in the past? I don’t think I could personally do it. Also, what did you learn about the stray animal situation in Japan? and how does it differ with Taiwan and the U.S.?
The abused dogs trembled when they saw human approaching. This was heartbroken. Especially, they were curious and wanted to sniff us, but they were so afraid when we had any little movement. There are about 200 dogs and 1000 cats being sent to the shelter every year in Kyoto. Most cases were because of the death of the owner. This is very different from Taiwan because most dogs at shelters were either sick or did not have a good behavior.
It sounds like you had so much fun at the animal shelter! It was really cool to read about how you got to play with the animals while making new friends and practicing Japanese at the same time. Was there anything that you thought was surprising while you were there? And was it difficult trying to learn all of the animals different personalities while also practicing Japanese and trying something new?
I was surprised by the tidiness of the shelter. The shelter was VERY clean, which made the working environment very comfortable. There were not many animals in the shelter so it was not a problem for me to remember each animal. It was definitely a challenge to use the Japanese I knew to ask my supervisor about the condition of each animal. But it was fun!