Estimated radiation doses to potential adoptive-owners of dogs and cats rescued from Chernobyl and Fukushima

The radiological accidents that occurred at the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants resulted in the release of a substantial amount of radioactive material into the environment, requiring evacuation of residents. Evacuations caused involuntary abandonment of many pets, and both feral dogs and cats can still be found in exclusion zones of Chernobyl and Fukushima, likely offspring of pets left behind. Animal welfare groups have provided care for these forsaken animals, oftentimes rescuing them and subsequently facilitating their adoption, or in some cases reuniting them with their original owners. However, these abandoned animals have adapted to a feral lifestyle, foraging for food and, in the process, accumulating low levels of internal radioactivity, effectively becoming sources of radiation themselves. Consequently, adoptive owners of rescued dogs and cats from Chernobyl and Fukushima may be exposed to low levels of radiation, which could potentially be a deterrent to some considering adoption. Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code was used to model various pet-owner bonding scenarios, enabling the estimation of total dose ranges. Evaluation of radiation doses to hypothetical owners in several exposure scenarios reveals that doses of significantly less than 1 mSv can be expected. Under a conservative scenario, a potential owner would receive an annual effective dose of 1.1 × 10⁻³ mSv from a contaminated dog or 3.6 × 10⁻⁶ mSv from a contaminated cat. These exposure levels are negligible, and thus adopting a cat or dog from these areas is not expected to be a serious concern from a dose perspective.