It was one of the more stirring videos of the devastation in Japan.
Two injured dogs are found by a reporter in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. One dog is seen severely injured and lying down. The other is moving around, agitated and appearing to be protecting the more injured one. Headlines accompanying the video stated: “Loyal dog won’t leave injured friend.”
Several days later CNN and other news outlets reported the happy news that the dogs were rescued.
Now however, a firestorm has erupted over whether that’s even true.
Global Animal, a popular site for animal lovers, questions the accuracy of a Facebook user who claims to have rescued the canines.
Kenn Sakurai, the owner of a dog food supply company in Japan, has been posting on Facebook that he rescued the dogs, and Sakurai has been accepting money from grateful animal lovers wanting to help the dogs.
Global Animal recently interviewed Sakurai after he initially turned down several of their interview requests but thus far however, he has no photographic proof of the dogs.
Now Global Animal does not appear to be convinced that Sakurai or anyone associated with him actually rescued the dogs or that they are still alive.
No other rescue organization in Japan can account for the dogs, either.
So now, the sad mystery continues. The video remains haunting.
If people were more like this, we should only hope, God bless animals they really can teach us a lot.
Where are these dogs now?
The question remains … WHY didn’t the people who shot the video help the dogs????????
Apparently they didn’t have the proper equipment to catch the dogs; leashes, nets, crates, etc. They were human rescuers, not animal rescuers.
Like it matters, if they had time to shoot video of the dogs, they had time to call someone to help them … it just shows the stupidity of humans who think animals are worth less than humans … if anything these two dogs showed that they were worth more than most of the population of this planet …
Proper equipment? You mean food – water – patience?
I sure do hope that this isn’t true and that these poor dogs were rescued by someone. Whatever, this video shows us all the true meaning of friendship and loyalty.
the pain in my heart is is much for these poor babie’s. the lest this person could have done was to get them some food or such. he had time to take the pic/and get his story in and get his pay it seems. and if the person that has been taking money etc.doesn’t have the dogs his butt ought to be hung out to dry.
Damnit. I was really hoping that they were alright like “everyone” kept saying they were. I hope that either proof become available or the people who donated money to the wrong place can have their money reimbursed so it can go to someone who isn’t falsifying their efforts.
I hope the dogs are okay. Why didn’t the people videoing help the dogs?? I certainly would have. And leave it to humans to try to scam people however they can. The human race is disgusting.
I hope the dogs are okay. Why didn’t the people videoing help the dogs?? I certainly would have. And leave it to humans to try to scam people however they can. The human race is disgusting.
I hope and pray that these babies are okay and that some kind loving person took care of them and will see these news articles and hopefully come forward with some good news for us! Lets keep our fingers crossed because this was one of the most amazing dog videos I have seen and really hit home for me as I have two dogs who are inseperable myself.
It goes to show how greedy people really can be.they are very loyal to us and to each other, we can learn from that. I’m going to divert from the topic ever so slightly. But relates to the topic because of how people treat others. One of my coworkers had a customer that yelled at her blaming her becuase of the cost of deisel.
The dogs are rescued and at a shelter, last I was aware.
Also, it could have been dangerous to go near a dog that he doesn’t know? He doesn’t know how the dog could react to him coming up (when the dog was already in a defensive state of mind) and the dog could have bit him. He was doing the safe thing by NOT going up without the proper equipment to save an animal.
Life is dangerous. As it turns out, for my mom going to see her chiropractor was dangerous.
Danger is not an acceptable reason for not doing the right thing.
I do hope someone did rescue those dogs. As to those video taping, if they were human rescuers, I can’t fault them. In the middle of that awful devastation they may not have been able to take them, keep them safe and transport them. Hopefully with all the attention this video has recieved, someone was ale to rescue them.
even though i hoped they had been rescued……. i knew in my heart that with such devastation it was improbable……… i appreciate dogfiles going after the truth
What a sloppy piece of work [Kenn Sakura, a popular site for animal lovers, questions the accuracy of a Facebook user who claims to have rescued the canines.” are you kidding?? read that line again, now edit!] It appears that you just vomitted up what you read on the internet. If you had, in fact done any research, you would know that Mr. Sakurai was only answering requests from his Facebook friends when he set up a donation account BEFORE this video even surfaced. You would also know that he is a long-time animal rescue, animal rights advocate in his area, and he has a beautiful little Shiba-Inu that he treats like a baby!
A site like this should be an advocate for animal lovers, not jump on the bandwagon with a self-righteous mob demanding that their needs be satisfied.
But you can all pat yourselves on the back for breaking a gentle, honorable man – he is in the process of returning all the money that was donated since the earthquake – even to the people who insist he keep their donations. Sleep well and dream about the animals that are dying in the rubble tonight because he has no gas to drive out to find them. But hey, at least you won!! Yay you!
Will we ever get the truth about these two lovely dogs? How cruel to show the video and then tell the people watching the video that the 2 dogs were rescued and in a shelter and then telling us 3 days later that yes, the video taped the 2 dogs but couldn’t bother to rescue them and didn’t even have the “gots” to admit that they abandoned these poor creatures. Damn all of you.
I check online for news/ updates about these dogs since the video was posted and nothing. I can only hope they didn’t forget to go back for them. How can Cathy C. from the national news said they were rescued without obvious confirmation. Why??