Members of United Kennel Club Japan (UKC Japan) care for pets which are rescued from inside the exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, at the group’s pet shelter in Samukawa town, Kanagawa prefecture on Jan. 25. Dogs and cats that were abandoned in the Fukushima exclusion zone after last year’s nuclear crisis have had to survive high radiation and a lack of food, and they are now struggling with the region’s freezing winter weather.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11 triggered the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years and forced residents around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to flee, with many of them having to leave behind their pets.

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