The World’s First “Cat Train” Opens in Japan

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It’s already been established that cats are good stress relievers for anyone. They take you away from the monotonous chores of the day-to-day grind, and now it is being seen even more-so, that cats are becoming a regular fixture in cities that are loaded with millennials. Millennials are known to be a more cat-friendly generation and are incorporating them into more situations than any other generation before. Because of this, the cat café business has really taken off and is really booming now.

People in Japan wanted to know what people would do if they needed to leave the hustle and bustle of a city and head to the country. The answer to that was to take a “cat train.” If you’re wondering what a cat train is, it is a train where cats ride onboard, too.

This particular train in Japan, is the first of its kind, and it left the station recently, from the city of Ogaki with 30 felines on board. The passengers were told that they should interact with the felines; sit with them, cuddle them, and play with them before enjoying some lunch.

There has been a message that has been getting out about cats, and that is that there is a lot more to the stroking and making over cats. The message meant for people is that there is a problem of stray cats in Japan, so the non-governmental group, Kitten Café Sanctuary and the Yoro Railway Co Ltd hosted the event to raise this awareness. They want people to realize that there are lots of cats that need homes, and without being housed, these cats roam the streets.

It is the efforts of groups like the Kitten Café Sanctuary that have helped the number of cats in shelters to drop by about 70% since 2004, while 72,624 were admitted into shelters in 2016.

There’s a serious message in amongst all the stroking and cooing at kittens though.

Hosted by Yoro Railway Co Ltd and non-governmental group Kitten Cafe Sanctuary, the event was set up to raise awareness of the problem of stray cats in Japan, and the volume of those culled when they’re unable to be housed. In the same respect, the number of those culled dropped from 238,929 in 2004 to 45,574 in 2016. The organizations that work to help house these cats acknowledge that the 45,574 figure is still too many, but they say it is a big step in the right direction and hope to continue to see the figure drop.

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