"New foreign menace"!

[Taro Toporific]

FORMER NAMES of the THREAD:
-->"Walk on the wild side JPN"
--->" Coons wreak alien havoc over Japan"

On the wild side in Japan
atimes.com / Sept 20
"Lax domestic laws and rich consumers willing to pay high prices for exotic animals and birds have made Japan a haven for the wildlife trade," said Hisako Nogami, director of ALIVE (All Life In a Viable Environment)...
The Health Ministry also enacted new laws in July prohibiting the importation of raccoon dogs and ferret badgers from China in the wake of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) last year, which researchers traced to several animals. The civet cat is among the animals identified as a possible source of the SARS virus in China. More than 700 masked palm civets were imported from Southeast Asia last year.

[Caustic Saint]

On the wild side in Japan
atimes.com / Sept 20
"Lax domestic laws and rich consumers willing to pay high prices for exotic animals and birds have made Japan a haven for the wildlife trade," said Hisako Nogami, director of ALIVE (All Life In a Viable Environment)...
The Health Ministry also enacted new laws in July prohibiting the importation of raccoon dogs and ferret badgers from China in the wake of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) last year, which researchers traced to several animals. The civet cat is among the animals identified as a possible source of the SARS virus in China.

BAH! Tanuki's all about the drinkin', not the SARS.

[Taro Toporific]

Raccoons wreaking havoc across Japan
Yomiuri Shimbun / May 13The rapid increase in the number of raccoons, living in the wild has become a serious problem affecting the nation's agriculture and ecosystem.
How did the raccoon, a species native to North America and alien to Japan, become so widespread in this country? ....
....Tokyo hynobiid salamanders--categorized as an endangered species in Kanagawa Prefecture's Red Data Book--has sharply declined due to attacks by wild raccoons. ....A bill has been submitted to the Diet to create a law to prevent damages by such designated alien species that will enable measures to be taken against the animals when they cause damage. Some people have asked why "innocent raccoons" must be killed.

[Taro Toporific]

Raccoons wreaking havoc across Japan
Yomiuri Shimbun / May 13]

Raccoons -- new foreign menace?
The Japan Times, Thursday Sept. 16 Raccoons were strangers to Japan until around 1977, when a television cartoon about an American boy befriending one of the cute little carnivores led to the animals being imported as pets.
But the relationship since "Raccoon Rascal" aired in Japan has soured.....

...Chikako Fujii, who has a 12-year-old pet raccoon in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward....
"Some people say raccoons are driving away 'tanuki' (raccoon dogs). But how does the value of one life differ from that of another?" she asked. "Should they be killed simply because they are foreign? I really don't understand that."

[dimwit]

Raccoons -- new foreign menace?
The Japan Times, Thursday Sept. 16 Raccoons were strangers to Japan until around 1977, when a television cartoon about an American boy befriending one of the cute little carnivores led to the animals being imported as pets.
But the relationship since "Raccoon Rascal" aired in Japan has soured.....

Drat! My evil plot for the overthrow of Japan by smuggling in racoons has been uncovered. But no matter, just wait until racoons find out how much easier and more fattening garbage dumpsters and alley way trash in the city are than chasing live animals. BWA HA HA

[tonikoro]

On the wild side in Japan
atimes.com / Sept 20
"Lax domestic laws and rich consumers willing to pay high prices for exotic animals and birds have made Japan a haven for the wildlife trade," said Hisako Nogami, director of ALIVE (All Life In a Viable Environment)...
The Health Ministry also enacted new laws in July prohibiting the importation of raccoon dogs and ferret badgers from China in the wake of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) last year, which researchers traced to several animals. The civet cat is among the animals identified as a possible source of the SARS virus in China.

BAH! Tanuki's all about the drinkin', not the SARS.

"Tanuki-san Tanuki-san, Asobo jyanaika? -Ima benkyo no masaichu~"