According to a survey released Tuesday, only 20 out of 42 municipalities in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures have adopted guidelines on allowing evacuees staying at shelters to keep pets with them.
The survey asked 42 municipalities in prefectures where the government evacuated residents following the massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 and nuclear disaster in Fukushima whether they allow pets at shelters and, if so, under what circumstances.
Twenty municipalities said pets will be allowed "in principle." But they lacked detailed conditions, showing that even disaster-hit areas that grappled with evacuees' desires to keep their pets subsequently failed to map out measures under which they could keep the pets with them in shelters.