Zao Fox Village Review/Thoughts

The reason I am writing this is because reading online there are a lot of reviews of the Fox Village positive and negative. While also hosting quite a low rating on Google Maps and Trip Advisor and while this can be normal for Japan. If you read into what it is written it can be a different story depending on what reviews you read.

“Ignore the bad reviews, this place is great” 5stars

“Don't be fooled by the positive reviews! The foxes are cute but it's animal cruelty.” 1 star review

Reviews taken from Tripadvisor

Disclaimer: While there during winter I did not see any sick foxes and that’s while looking for them. I am in also no way trying to slander Zao Fox Village or discourage you from going, these are my thoughts on what I observed. I am no animal or fox expert so the following writing is just my observations of what I saw at Zao Fox Village.

Firstly I am bothered about the amount of foxes in small cages sometimes just 2 times the size of the fox itself. Image your home being you laying down times 2 as the square footage. Many foxes acted what I would consider weird. Also, some cages while seemed big held so many foxes that the space for the foxes was essentially the same as the ones in a single cage.

I also think that Zao Fox Village know what they are doing to these animals may be questionable since there are many signs saying “No Photos” of the foxes in cages and many saying that you can’t post it online. These foxes are said to be quarantined because of sickness, time out for behaviour or a part of breeding. I can’t see how the latter two isolation cages wouldn’t bring more distress to the animals. Many cages have 2 or more foxes and they are right next to another cage of foxes. I would’ve assumed that isolation for the foxes would’ve been better if they were sick or unwell not caged right next to another fox on which it could transmit the sickness they hold. Many foxes in cages are also chained up on a short leash, though the leash was only the size of the cage anyway so it didn’t make much of a difference. Some cages also had notes saying that that specific fox in the cage was for ‘petting only’, I hope they let these ones out every now and then to roam. Some of the cages foxes seemed to me to be in genuine distress, though again I am not an animal expert and do not know if this is normal behaviour. I’ll leave the photos I took and you can come to your own conclusion on the caging of the foxes.

Foxes seemed to be in distress constantly moving around

This fox did this for 10 minutes straight

Finally for the pen area or the main area where you can see the foxes roam around in the ‘wild’. Many comments online said there were too many foxes roaming around. While you can form your own opinion about this. I felt that the areas could be pretty empty besides the feeding balcony where most of the foxes were (around 80-90% of them). The space was decently large so if they were spread around I think it would be enough space, though naturally, of course, it wouldn’t be, I don’t think they would be in any shape or form cramped if left to roam in the open space.

The smell is something that should be mentioned but as with all animals and zoo likes you’re going get urine and feces smell but it wasn’t anything outrageous, though I also went during winter it was -5C/23F and snowing at the time the cold would’ve masked the smell a bit so I could even smell it quite a bit then so during the summer it may be quite unpleasant. Though I did not feel like it was any smellier than any other zoo that you would go to. Also please be careful when taking photos with the foxes please, I saw on two occasions during my own visit a hat and gloves being stolen by the foxes from tourists getting too close to them for a photo.

Left Feeding Box /// Right The crowds

The keepers seems to really care for the foxes and all interactions that I saw between staff and the foxes seemed totally in good faith. They were gentle and staff often asked guests to stay away from the foxes when they got too close.

Overall, Zao Fox Village is a great place to go if you have the extra time or are in the area to go. I think I would question it as a zoo/sanctuary as this should be somewhere that should have the animal’s well-being at the top of their list of priorities. I wouldn’t say it’s something I would go out of my way for unless I had a car to drive there, Zao Onsen village or even Zao ski resort during winter are more well worth your time and may not leave you with an ethical dilemma about the wellbeing of the animals you just saw.