Animals Abused in DG?

[dylanftw]

Posted by T-Dog on Wrestlecrap:

Apparently this is getting huge play on the Japanese blogs and it's made it's way to the English-speaking message boards.

Dragon Gate wrestlers have blogs on the company's website. It's not kayfabed like WWE's so it's basically whatever the wrestlers want to post.

Recently, Shingo Takagi blogged and posted pics that depicted him and fellow wrestler Araken abusing a pet monkey that is housed at the Dragon Gate dojo. Araken himself also blogged and posted pics. Here's what one of the guys off the DVDVR message board posted, which includes links. The links are in Japanese, but the pics tell the story.

WARNING. THE PICTURES ARE DISTURBING.

They choked it by the neck until it passed out.
They burned it with charcoal.
They threw it into a tub of boiling hot water.
Not sure on this one but it looks like they blew air into its mouth and it would cause it to crap instantly.
They gave it sake regularly until it would pass out.
Drag it around by a chain on its neck.
attached fire crackers to it and lit them
lock it in a box and spray antiperspirant in the box causing it to freak out.
It really disgusting stuff and they created a huge mound of evidence. These people are snorking cretins.

Here's some links to some of the posts. You can see the monkey is often bruised and bleeding. The first link is Shingo's blog taking a picture of the monkey being choked unconscious, it's disgusting.

spora.jp/takagishingo/archive/909/0 <- choking

spora.jp/araken/archive/472/0 <- abuse

spora.jp/araken/archive/731/0 <- drunk

spora.jp/araken/archive/740/0 <- dragging

The police in Japan are all over it as well.

More: plaza.rakuten.co.jp/anticablog/diary/200905260000/

There's also videos created by a wrestling fan that shows the blogs, photos and asks for help saving the monkey.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_haFLwfwSUE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCEyPPNfeCk

As noted, the police are involved as well. This could end putting public pressure on Dragon Gate and knowing how sensitive Puro companies are about their image, it could be very bad for the careers of Shingo and Araken.

That's some pretty fucked up shit right there.

[barry]

I've been reading about this. things are developing rapidly and at last word, Shingo does not appear to be one of the "bad guys." There have been some creative translations that originally made it appear that way and the photos allegedly do not actually show him but another wrestler.

I don't know, but wait this out before jumping to judgement. Obviously this whole thing is fucked up indeed.

As y'all may have realize that I tend to react to disturbing situations with occassionally questionable attempts at humor, so please forgive me for the next comment.

When is ACW going to get a pet monkey?

[Office_of_Anarchy]

May 29, 2009 18:13:36 GMT -5 barry said:

When is ACW going to get a pet monkey?

this situation is 100% appalling. this is sick. I see Peta making an appearance at the Dragon Gate USA shows...

the act is appalling...not the joke...

[bigbiss]

Im a Pretty big Shingo mark but you don't fuck with animals, I hope Barry is right and he was not involved but if he was this is no diffrent then Micheal Vick to me

[barry]

The way I am reading things, Shingo was originally mentioned in the story because he may have actually been the one who brought the situation to light. As I said earlier, everything is not clear still and it would not surprise me if the promotion was spinning things to protect the bigger star. It does appear clear that the chief individual responsible was RYOMA who has already been fired as a result of all this. Also, Tozawa has been given some unspecified disciplinary action and a third wrestler Ono was also involved, but he was released prior to the situation becoming publicized.

I strongly suspect that these three wrestlers and anyone else who was involved will be dealt with by others within the lockerroom who, by all accounts adore the monkey Cora. I doubt any of those three will be able to have notable careers in wrestling after this.

Peta is already involved and you can be certain that public pressure will lead toward further legal actions.

[bigbiss]

I'm going to paraphrase a bit in some spots, but for the most part this is just translated from the Gaora BBS. My own thoughts and additional information at the end.

"Thank you very much for your continued support of Dragon Gate.

One of our rookie wrestlers made an unofficial blog detailing incidents regarding our pet monkey Cora, detailing them from the monkey perspective. We received many inquiries about the abuse mentioned in the blog. We apologize respectfully for causing such a great concern and worry.

To confirm the facts gathered from our staff and roster. Cora has lived at our gym for many years. He is raised and cared for by our rookies and trainees, and is cherished and loved. The cruelty to animals allegations on the internet were investigated and found to not be true.

The offensive blog posts have been deleted. Cora is now living with foster parents to ensure safety and remove fears of his conditions.

The company will continue to investigate to uncover further facts and information, in hopes of eliminating any further doubts and recover the trust of our fans.

The wrestler responsible for causing all this confusion has been disciplined for an indefinite amount of time. Further, President Takashi Okamura accepts responsibility for these events and will incur both disciplinary action and a reduction in pay."

www.gaora.co.jp/cgi-bin/bbs/dragon/news.cgipost #1901

The offending player and the person behind the blog that started this entire series of events was RYOMA. He was keeping a blog from the perspective of Cora, and discussed all of the various allegations of abuse that are out there now. The blog was deleted immediately after it was discovered.

Regarding the official blog posts from Shingo and Araken, neither of them were involved in the incidents detailed by RYOMAs' blog. While the choking photo is inexcusable, the post itself details an incident where Cora escaped and attacked people, and had to be restrained.

Cora has lived at the gym since the early Toryumon days, and alongside Momo the dog he has been an idol and mascot for the gym. He is now staying with the parents of a roster member and will be cared for properly. Hopefully the healing process over this whole ugly ordeal can begin now.