A Man and his dog walk through the wreckage caused by the Tsunami. Photo by Nicholas Kamm

They’re hungry, hurt and separated from owners who are either dead or in evacuation centers.

They’re the hundreds of dogs who are struggling to survive amidst the desolation of Japan’s tsunami-ravaged northeast coast.

Among the many rescue teams sent from around the world to search for survivors and bodies after Japan’s worst natural disaster for nearly a century, a handful of specialized animal rescue groups have also been at work.

In the days immediately after the March 11 tsunami that wiped out dozens of thriving coastal towns, the prospects looked grim.

“In the hardest hit areas, we saw no animal life whatsoever,” said Ashley Fruno, from animal rights group PETA.

“We did see some paw prints in the mud at one point, but they didn’t lead anywhere, and we could not find any animals nearby.”

Slowly but surely, however, abandoned pets have begun to emerge, often from damaged homes where they had managed to ride out the destructive force of the tsunami.

Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (JEARS), a hastily assembled coalition of animal welfare groups, has been providing food and treatment for injured animals and has also been trying to find temporary shelters for those that have lost their owners.

According to Isabella Gallaon-Aoki of JEARS, there have also been cases of people choosing to stay in their ruined houses because shelters refused to accommodate pets.

“People here see pets as family members. For some, after everything that has happened, their pet is the only thing they can cling on to — the only thing that brings them comfort,” she said.

Timo Takazawa and her husband are two of those people. They and their dog Momo survived the tsunami and are now living in a shelter. And though there are complaints about the dog from other evacuees in their crowded shelter in the city of Sendai, Timo says, “I can’t imagine not being here together. If anybody said to me I couldn’t keep Momo here, we would leave with her, we would go somewhere else.”

Story By Elaine Furst For Dog Files