[WARNING] The following document is a work of total fiction. Any resemblance to actual organizations, entities, or individuals is purely coincidental.
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[Date: Year X, Month X, Day X] To: Chief of the XX Police Department
FORMAL COMPLAINT
I am an employee working at the T City Office [Editor's Note: To protect the safety of the anonymous whistleblower, the specific name of the municipality has been withheld]. To artificially lower the apparent number of animal euthanasias for cats and dogs that the health center operated by this office cannot properly process, certain staff members here are secretly and illegally killing these animals. Below is my report on the method I have uncovered.
Many local residents have likely noticed a high number of dead cats on the city's streets, struck by vehicles. Why are dead cats seen on the roads here so much more frequently than in other municipalities across the prefecture and beyond? In reality, most of these are not tragic accidental deaths, but cleverly concealed, de facto euthanasias.
[How Abandoned Cats End Up at the Health Center]
Our office's health center operates an Animal Protection Center (hereinafter simply referred to as "the Center"). Under Article 44, Paragraph 3 of the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals, abandoning protected animals such as cats is prohibited. Nonetheless, a considerable number of abandoned cats and pets relinquished by their owners are brought to the Center each month. These animals are sheltered and cared for by the Center for a set period—internal regulations dictate a window between 2 and 14 days due to staffing and budgetary constraints—during which the Center is required under Article 37-2, Paragraph 2, Item 4 of said Act to seek adoptive owners.
Animals that satisfy certain conditions—such as those for whom new owners cannot be smoothly found within the specified period, or those whose aggressive behavior toward humans does not diminish despite care and management at the Center, making them inherently unfit for adoption—may be reluctantly euthanized.
[Official Method of Euthanasia] Regarding the euthanasia of dogs and cats, in accordance with Article 40, Paragraph 1 of the Animal Welfare Act, the Center administers anesthesia to the animal before injecting carbon dioxide into a sealed chamber to asphyxiate them.
[The Issues] The Center uses a carbon dioxide euthanasia chamber (commonly known as a "Dream Box") to execute the aforementioned euthanasias. However, this equipment has degraded significantly and requires replacement. Yet, when staff requested quotes from specialized vendors, the equipment proved extraordinarily expensive, making the purchase impossible given our municipality's strained fiscal situation.
Furthermore, certain animal welfare groups inside and outside the city have fiercely condemned this procurement, making it nearly impossible to obtain approval from the mayor or city council with elections fast approaching.
To make matters worse, the Ministry of the Environment strongly demands that we reduce the actual number of euthanasias below the previous year's figures to promote animal welfare. Thus, unable to replace the euthanasia chamber, the staff faced the dual pressure of having to reduce official euthanasia statistics.
[The Illegal Method of De Facto Euthanasia] Faced with this, Center Director K [Note: Specific real names are withheld below to ensure the whistleblower's safety] conspired with Veterinarian O of the Center's Operations Division. Knowing full well that the transferred cats would be killed, they have been transferring large numbers of cats to "Nyanko Guardians," a local animal welfare organization.
By doing so, our municipality artificially lowers its public euthanasia numbers, while the receiving group can inflate its reported rescue figures. Furthermore, I have heard that lavish entertainment and money transfers—potentially violating public service ethics codes—have taken place between officials from both parties.
This organization lacks the facilities and personnel to care for and manage so many cats at once. Therefore, they intentionally slaughter the cats through brutal means, such as beating them with blunt objects, and then toss the carcasses onto public roads at night to make it appear as though the cats darted out and were hit by traffic. Note that this dangerous act may also violate Article 76, Paragraph 4, Item 4 of the Road Traffic Act.
Residents may have noticed that dead cats seen from their cars are removed surprisingly quickly. Under Article 36, Paragraph 1 of the Animal Welfare Act, anyone who finds an injured or dead animal of unknown ownership is required to report it promptly to the prefectural governor (or the mayor, in our city's case). The organization coordinates the location and timing with Center staff in advance before killing the cats, after which they "report" the body to our office, allowing staff to rush to the scene and retrieve the carcass.
[In Conclusion] As described above, because the Center finds it difficult to perform direct euthanasias on cats taken into custody, it has conspired with a specific animal welfare organization to secretly kill them using methods that cause immense pain—likely violating the Animal Welfare Act. I have taken the step of blowing the whistle to expose this truth and put a stop to these illegal killings.
However, it seems they already anticipated that I harbored suspicions about the Center's recent activities and might take action detrimental to them, such as filing a report. Overheard in the restroom at work, their allies were discussing it. At this rate, I myself may become the target of a "euthanasia" staged to look like a roadkill accident.
* Just in case, I have decided to release this document not only to the police, but to the general public as well. If you are reading this, I am likely no longer of this world. To anyone reading this: please help ensure that this document reaches as many eyes as possible as quickly as possible. We must not let them get away with this any longer.
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At around 12:20 a.m. on the 4th, Mr. H (42), a municipal employee from S Ward in T City, was lying on a road in K Town, T City, when he was struck by a passenger car traveling straight, sustaining severe full-body trauma.
Mr. H was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. The passenger car was driven by a lone woman, who sustained no injuries.
The scene was a straight road with good visibility, and there were no traffic lights or crosswalks nearby. Because Mr. H's clothing smelled of alcohol, police believe he had been walking while intoxicated before lying down on the road for unknown reasons, and are investigating the detailed circumstances of the accident.
There have already been 1,532 traffic accidents in the prefecture since the start of this fiscal year, with Mr. H being the sixth fatality.
