The Horses of Fukushima

What bad luck for the 23 horses that survived the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima. Having withstood the tsunami, they were stuck in their stables near the disaster area, which had been closed by the Japanese government with a radius of 20 kilometers (12 miles). Their caregivers were forced to evacuate without them, so the horses were not only exposed to an extremely high dose of radiation, but also to starvation. Only when they are taken to stables outside the zone does it become clear how difficult it will be to save the survivors. The ribs of our protagonists can still be counted after several months. There is not enough money for food, no permission to let them out of the stables, and due to the lack of exercise they get colic. A thousand-year-old tradition seems their only bit of luck: the local horse festival in which they were to take part means that the government can't slaughter them. But how suitable are these traumatized animals for the festival? After all, the smallest things make them panic. Perhaps their salvation has more to do with the country's black market for horsemeat, which is a delicacy in Japan. One-fifth of it comes from Fukushima, but fortunately for these poor animals, they ate radioactive grass.