Capable of taking care of pets for life or temporarily in case something happens to the owner! Opening New &HAUS Facility for Owners and their Cherished Dogs!

Menicon Co., Ltd. (Head Office: 21-19 Aoi 3, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. CEO: Hidenari Tanaka) announces that “Future Security for Dogs,” a core service of “&D,” has opened &HAUS (pronounced “and house”) in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture (the former Kasama City East Elementary School/1713-1 Ohashi, Kasama City, Ibaraki) to take in dogs and care for them for life or manage transfers to new owners in case their owners can no longer live with their dogs. &HAUS held its opening ceremony on October 24, 2022.

● What is &HAUS?

&HAUS is a facility based on the idea of “shelter medicine,” one of the latest research fields in animal protection. It was established by remodeling a closed school in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture as part of a Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) project for the effective utilization of closed school facilities. In case an “&D” partner can no longer live with their dog due to a health problem, a disaster, overseas transfer, etc., we provide a comfortable living environment for the dogs in Kasama, where they are surrounded by nature. In honoring the wishes of the owners, &HAUS will shower the dogs with love, support them with opportunities to meet new family, and conduct various animal welfare activities, such as enlightenment activities, to reduce the number of unhappy dogs by even one and provide support for protection organizations.

● &HAUS official site:  https://www.and-d.menicon.co.jp/and_haus/

&HAUS and shelter medicine

● What is Shelter Medicine?

Shelter veterinary medicine is directly translated as veterinary medicine for group management, and it is an area of veterinary medicine focusing on the protection of the mental and physical health of dogs and cats living in animal welfare facilities. It is different from the general veterinary medicine for pets in terms of stress mitigation, infection management, and other areas. The basic idea is to analyze the vast amount of data collected from shelters (protection facilities) and reconsider how animal protection should be conducted from a veterinary perspective. It is assumed that 11 dogs should be housed in each classroom, so that they can live in an environment similar to their homes. This has the effect of mitigating stress as much as possible, maintaining physical health, and reducing the behavioral issues in animals.
  &HAUS provides a comfortable environment for cherished dogs under the supervision of veterinary epidemiology/shelter epidemiology expert and veterinarian, Dr. Aki Tanaka.

Veterinarian/Doctor

Veterinarian and doctor specialized in veterinary epidemiology and shelter epidemiology,
Aki Tanaka

After graduating from the Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University and working at a veterinary clinic, Dr. Tanaka moved to the U.S. She completed her master’s course in Environmental Toxicology at the University of California, Davis, and her master’s course in Preventive Veterinary Medicine with Shelter Medicine. She completed the doctoral course in epidemiology by continuing to pursue shelter medicine and disaster veterinary medicine as her research focus. Dr. Tanaka is currently engaged in research and educational activities, primarily at government animal management centers. Research themes include infection control in shelters (veterinary population medicine), animal abuse (legal veterinary medicine), and disaster veterinary medicine.

History of the establishment of &HAUS

● History of the establishment of &HAUS

Menicon’s corporate slogan is” “Contributing to society by providing superior visual correction”.

However, “visual acuity” does not simply indicate “being able to see” with human eyes. We also aim to provide the “joy of seeing” and “joy of living” through all five senses of living entities, including joy, connection, an inquisitive mind, and pride. We wish “to be a global corporation that is friendly to humans, animals, and the environment.” We wish to use our technology and the wisdom we have developed for the dignity of all lives, including the flat-rate contact lens program “MELSPLAN,” which has entered its 21st year since launch, and Meni-One Co., Ltd., which conducts business in the field of veterinary medicine based on the technologies cultivated in the field of human ophthalmology.
In “&D,” we developed a new business model based on both providing “services to support a healthy and secure life with dogs” and “donations and protection activities for the coexistence of humans and dogs” with the aim to achieve a society where people and dogs can coexist. Through its services, “&D” will implement what is possible for all dogs and all owners, one by one.

Among these accomplishments is &HAUS, a facility based on the idea of “shelter medicine,” one of the latest research fields in the area of animal protection. &HAUS was established by remodeling a closed school in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture as part of a MEXT project for the effective utilization of closed school facilities. In case an “&D” partner can no longer live with their dog, we provide a comfortable living environment for the dogs in Kasama where they are surrounded by nature.

● Support for cherished dogs that closely meets the needs of aging owners

While the aging of society continues, there are many cases where it becomes difficult to keep pets due to the hospitalization of the owner. In addition to temporary stays during hospitalization, &HAUS allows owners to visit their cherished dogs at the facility during their stay and offers a service for owners to see that their dogs are doing well through video.

By providing these services, we offer broad support with the aim of using “visiting their dogs” and “living with dogs again” as motivation for hospitalized owners to recover and to encourage owners living in institutions for dementia, etc. to regain their vitality by regularly visiting and playing with their dogs.

● Housing conditions for dogs

It has become natural for people to have dogs and cats living with them as part of the family. However, there are many cases where pets are taken away from the owner due to unavoidable circumstances and brought to animal protection centers operated by the local government. According to statistics from the Ministry of the Environment*, the number of dogs that are relinquished and the rate of those euthanized in Japan continue to decrease. The changes in the figures in 10 years, from 2011 to 2020, show significant reductions of the numbers of animals that were relinquished from 77,805 to 27,635 and the rate of dogs euthanized dropped from 56.0% to 14.7%. The reasons for this include an increase in the number of cases where private animal protection organizations directly take in the animals from owners, and the fact that public institutions are now able to refuse easy offers of relinquishment in accordance with the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals that was revised in 2012. However, our ultimate goal is to reduce the number of animals relinquished and the euthanasia rate to zero. It goes without saying that further reform of awareness is required, even though the hurdle for the transfer has been lowered.
*Statistical material by the Ministry of the Environment “Status of relinquishment of dogs and cats, housing of injured animals, and euthanization”
https://www.env.go.jp/nature/dobutsu/aigo/2_data/statistics/dog-cat.html

● Background of partnership with Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture

Approximately 450 school facilities across the country are closed every year due to the decrease in the number of children and students in association with the declining birthrate. Since the closed school facilities are valuable assets to local governments, it is necessary to make effective use of them based on the circumstances and needs of the region. In September 2010, MEXT launched an initiative – “~Connecting to the Future ~ the Closed School Project for Everyone” – to promote the utilization of closed school facilities through efforts to summarize and disseminate nationwide information on such facilities. Applications for use are being invited, matching events for the utilization of closed schools are held, and case examples for the utilization of closed schools are introduced, among other efforts. As one such case, We will establish &HAUS by renovating a closed school in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture.

The background for selecting the specific closed school in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture includes that it is within 1.5 hours from the metropolitan area and that it has no residents in the vicinity. The place is rich in nature and not stressful for dogs. It has a large land area and many classrooms. After searching with the above conditions, the East Elementary School in Kasama City was found optimal and selected.

Location: 1713-1 Ohashi, Kasama City, Ibaraki

On October 24th (Mon), the &HAUS opening ceremony was held with the media invited

On October 24th (Monday), the opening ceremony for &HAUS was held in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and the facility’s interior was shown to the media.

Mayor Shinju Yamaguchi of Kasama City, and Mr. Toshio Ishimatsu, Chairperson of the Kasama City Council also attended the ceremony, and Mayor Yamaguchi said in his speech, ‘we appreciate that you have developed a new business at a closed school. We hope that &HAUS will develop as a central facility for coexistence and co-prosperity with our local communities and the realization of a symbiotic society with animals. ‘　

Ribbon cutting during the &HAUS opening ceremony

A scene from a dog room

A scene from the dog run

What is “&D”?

“&D” is a business, launched in April 2021 with the aim of achieving coexistence between humans and dogs and “happiness for all dogs.” We launched “Future Security for Dogs,” a service to take in dogs in case an owner can no longer live with it. In addition, with the start of “Future Security for Dogs,” we developed three basic and optional services so that owners can select the service in an easier to understand manner.

Menicon has been engaged in the manufacture and sale of intraocular lenses for the treatment of canine cataracts and contact lenses for dogs and cats through Meni-One Co, Ltd., established in 2003. In the future, we would like to change society, where life is handled as a commodity through “&D.” “&D” will implement what we can for all dogs and all owners, one by one, by widely raising awareness on the idea of accepting dogs as family and caring for them with love for life at the same time as our activities to protect dogs.

● “&D” official site: https://www.and-d.menicon.co.jp/
● “&D” official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/and_d_hitotoinu/?hl=ja
● “&D” official Twitter: https://twitter.com/and_d_hitotoinu

Company profile

After developing the first corneal contact lens in Japan in 1951, Menicon has continued its business under the corporate slogan, “Contributing to society by providing superior visual correction,” marking its 70th anniversary in 2021. We offer research and development that prioritizes eye safety, unique and advanced manufacturing technology, and MELSPLAN that supports comfortable and safe eye health into the future. With the head office in Nagoya City, Menicon operates not only on the development of lens materials and designs, but also develops business in more than 80 countries as a general contact lens manufacturer, including manufacture of lens care products.