Is providing water and food justified if they don't get proper care?

left side of his face

right side of his face

2/22/26

In the environment of Okunoshima—where no one takes responsibility for the lives of the animals—can the acts of feeding and providing water truly be justified? Are these actions genuinely in the best interest of the rabbits?

Although Okunoshima falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry has explicitly stated that it does not manage the rabbits. By "not managing," they naturally mean that they provide no care whatsoever. If that is the case, what are the solutions to the following problems?

- Without sorting and managing the rabbits, injuries resulting from fights among them will never cease.- Unless feeding is prohibited, illness and death caused by inappropriate food will never cease.

- Unless a safe distance is maintained between humans and rabbits, injuries and fatalities caused by accidental trampling or falls while being held will never cease.- Unless rabbits carrying infectious diseases are isolated from healthy ones, the entire population will fall ill, and deaths will be inevitable.

- Unless spaying and neutering are implemented, the rabbit population will continue to grow unchecked.

I do not believe that a tourism industry centered on rabbits can be justified without proper rabbit management; yet, I find myself wondering: how exactly did the practice of feeding and setting out water troughs come to be permitted in the first place?

I am opposed to both the feeding of rabbits and the installation of water troughs in a situation where there is no true management of the animals.

Ultimately, these actions do not serve the rabbits' best interests. Although I no longer feed them as actively as I once did, I am fully aware that I, too, am culpable; when confronted with a hungry rabbit right before my eyes, I still feel that withholding food would be cruel, and so I feed them—a sin I acknowledge.

Given the Ministry of the Environment's consistent stance thus far, it seems highly unlikely that they will shift toward actively managing the rabbits.

In that case, I implore them to put an end to both the feeding and the provision of water troughs.

If the current situation persists, this vicious cycle will continue almost indefinitely.

As things stand, the lives of the rabbits on this island are—quite literally—disposable.