Author Topic: Dogs in big demand in farm communities (Read 887 times)

hubag bohol · « **on:** June 13, 2013, 12:22:41 PM »

December 21, 2012
By RYOTA NISHIYAMA/ Staff Writer

UDA, Nara Prefecture--On a recent fall day, Saki Yamada, a 57-year-old in this mountain village, was inspecting crop fields with her faithful canine sidekick, Solomon, when she spotted several monkeys chowing down on some persimmons.

â€œSolomon, go! Bark!â€ she yelled, and the yipping 11-year-old mixed breed lit into the Japanese macaques. The monkeys instantly dropped the persimmons and disappeared into the forest.

â€œItâ€™s important to frighten the monkeys and let them know this is a dangerous place for them to be,â€ Yamada said.

Yamada's monkey problem is not unusual, and "monkey dogs" are in great demand in areas suffering heavy damages to farm crops by wild monkeys.

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #1 on:** June 13, 2013, 12:23:10 PM »

Municipalities in 24 prefectures have introduced trained monkey dogs, which are helping aging farmers drive off the simian pests.

About 100 monkeys from two groups live in the forests around Yamada's village, causing damages to pumpkins, onions and other crops.

Uda and neighboring Nabari in Mie Prefecture established a monkey dog training program in fiscal 2009.

The towns had police dog trainers train the local residents' dogs for six months in obedience and chase, which resulted in the authorization of 21 monkey dogs.

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #2 on:** June 13, 2013, 12:23:38 PM »

Workers in Nabari make rounds with radios that can receive signals from a device attached to several monkeys in each group. If the signals locate the monkeys in a field of crops, the monkey dog owners are notified and they rush to the site to scare off the macaques.

Monkey dogs were sent out about 70 times in both towns in fiscal 2011.

In Uda, damage to agricultural produce caused by monkeys dropped by 2 million yen ($24,431) in the three years since fiscal 2008, after monkey dogs were introduced.

The amount of damage to crops in Nabari fell by 400,000 yen ($4,886) in the first year after the introduction of monkey dogs.

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #3 on:** June 13, 2013, 12:24:12 PM »

According to the agriculture ministry, the total amount of damage to farm crops by wild animals was 23.9 billion yen in fiscal 2010, up 2.6 billion yen from a year earlier.

Damage caused by monkeys increased 200 million yen to 1.9 billion yen in fiscal 2010 from the previous year. Monkeys cause the fourth largest damage, following deer, boars and crows, the ministry said.

Although electric fences are effective in keeping out deer and wild pigs, monkeys are smart enough to get around them by climbing poles that are not electrified or other means to get entry into crop fields.

Farmers and municipalities have also discovered that using monkey dogs is less expensive and less time consuming than setting up electric fences.

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #4 on:** June 13, 2013, 12:24:40 PM »

In 2005, Omachi, Nagano Prefecture, became the first municipality to introduce a monkey dog training program. Many other towns followed.

According to the agriculture ministry, in fiscal 2011, 79 municipalities in 24 prefectures have monkey dog training programs. A total of 393 German Shepherds, Labrador Retrievers, Shiba Inu and other dogs work as trained monkey dogs.

Still, some problems remain, even if many municipalities, including Uda and Nabari, pay training costs.

Although damage to crops decreases temporarily in places where monkey dogs are put to work, some monkeys temporarily raid other fields and return to their original pillage site when the threat of monkey dogs has subsided.

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #5 on:** June 13, 2013, 12:25:05 PM »

Town officials say they need to be prepared to scare monkeys over a wider area.

It costs about 300,000 yen to train a monkey dog. Training takes up to six months and owners are required to participate.

The central government had been subsidizing each municipality up to 2 million yen a year from fiscal 2008 to 2011, but it now subsidizes only new monkey dog training programs, and only for the first year.

Numata in Gunma Prefecture has authorized seven monkey dogs, but an official in charge of the program says the number is too small.

â€œAbout 450 monkeys from 10 or 11 groups live here," the official said. "We want to increase the number of monkey dogs, but we cannot find enough dog owners willing to participate.â€ -- http://ajw.asahi.com/

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Author Topic: Dogs in big demand in farm communities (Read 887 times)

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Dogs in big demand in farm communities

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