13.05.2011

Japan has decided to cull thousands of livestock abandoned in the 12-mile radius evacuation zone, around the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
While announcing the decision, government spokesman Yukio Edano told reporters that Fukushima prefecture would soon be asked to start killing animals left in the evacuation zone after their owners were forced to flee the area.
Farmers in the area were forced to abandon their animals and poultry after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged the nuclear power plant. Around 3,400 cows, 31,500 pigs and 630,000 chickens were reported in the area before the crisis.