Recently, Japan had allowed people to own ferrets as pets, following the
popularity of ferrets in the United States.  Which I at first, thought that
it was a GRREAT Idea since ferrets are being popular world wide.  Well, I was
WRONG!!!!!!!
 
I have been contacting few ferret owners in Japan through E mails, and
reading Japanese pet magazines, have discovered that there are NO proper care
available for ferrets at this point.  Many newly ferret owners are told to
feed ferrets DOG foods, bring the ferret to the vet to get DOG shots (Without
telling them the specific kind -- Infact, they DO NOT have safe vaccines
available for ferrets right now, which I will go in detail later.) , keep
them in small cage since they are not very active and don't need too much
space, etc etc.
 
MOST, I would say about 95% of the ferrets imported into Japan is provided by
MARSHALL Ferret Farm in US.  (correct me if I am wrong) There are Marshall
name all over the petshops, everywhere.  And all though they do supply them
the ferrets and few ferret items to Japan, They absolutely are not giving
Japanese ferret owners the proper way to care for ferrets.
 
ONE of the MAJOR crisis is the canine distemper shots.  At this moment, there
is NO vaccine safe for ferrets in Japan.  If there is some, it is imported
from other countries (including US) and they are VERRRRRY expensive and very
hard to get.  They are only available in Tokyo, and runs about 1000 dollars
per shot.
There is an American ferret owner in Japan who had bought ferret in Japan, and
is worried about the ferret getting distemper disease.  Also, it concerns him
because he has to come back to US next year, and inorder to bring the ferret
back to US, they would require shots and health certificates.
 
He did work on convincing Japanese government to import Fervac-D or Galaxy-D
vaccine into Japan.  At first he was told that it is not possible, but after
telling them that ferrets could actually die from the disease and that by
giving the wrong vaccines can actually give them the disease itself, the
government had said to him that they would consider thinking about it and will
get in touch with him.  Well, they did, and their answer was: "There is NO WAY
that we will be allowing you to import such a strong vaccine into Japan!!!"
According to their stories, One Japanese company was actually producing the
similar vaccine, but was banned (or something) because it was very strong
(??????).  He have said to the government that the shots are required in US,
and if he were to go back to US, the ferrets NEEDS the shot, and inorder to do
so, we need to import it.
The Japanese Government have said that they will allow people to import the
vaccine IF US GOVERNMENT WILL SEND THEM A WRITTEN LETTER saying that ferrets
DO need canine distemper shots (which the disease is 100% fatal,).
 
Is there anyone from the government or a powerful source that who can write
to some one to help the ferret owners import the vaccines???
 
If you think you can help us, please E mail me at Ferret [log in to unmask], or
[log in to unmask]
 
Thank you very much!!!!!  Although they are in Japan, the ferrets are our
ferrets' relatives meaning that they came from Marshall Farms...  And no matter
which country they are in, they are infact the sweet little fuzzballs : )
 
hooked on ferrets,
 
FP
[Posted in FML issue 1160]