A friend to ferrets

Cook Medical Japan’s Shuuko Yoshino helps rescue and rehabilitate ferrets

Shuuko Yoshino did not want to simply volunteer a little of her time. Ever since she can remember, she has always wanted to help abandoned pets, and she simply did not want to stand by and watch any animal being mistreated.

With this passion in her heart, Shuuko, an SBU assistant in our Endoscopy specialty, dedicates a lot of her free time to the Tokyo chapter of the Ferret Rescue Center (FRC). Along with the other volunteers, she helps find and retrieve strays, then treat, rehabilitate, and train these animals to make them accustomed again to other animal companions and humans, and helps coordinate foster homes for these pets, too.

“If I could, I would like to save children from hunger and diseases. However, I thought I could bear responsibility and make a real change only for animals. I feel that my local charity involvement makes it possible for me to participate in the relay of life. I feel I can participate in some sort of greater good by saving a life that is about to be lost or by making these living beings healthy again,” Shuuko said.

They will steal your heart

Ferrets are excellent pets; they are outgoing, playful, lively, and extremely curious. There are no wild ferrets in Japan, so they are imported and sold in pet stores after undergoing surgery to prevent breeding.

“In my country, pets are treated as goods. This means that lost or abandoned animals are considered found goods by the police. If they are not picked up by a set date, they are killed,” Shuuko said.

In a way, her charity work began twenty years ago when she happened to come across an unsold ferret at a local pet store and welcomed him as a family member. Later, during a ferret boom in Japan, she learned that there were many abandoned or lost other ones, and little by little, she took them in.

“This was the beginning of our rescue team specializing in ferrets. While I started this activity on my own in 2000, later I found like-minded friends and, before I knew it, we were working as a group. We did not set out to create an official charity center, it came about rather spontaneously,” Shuuko said.

The group is not big: they are three reliable friends who have known and trusted each other for a long time, and they use their own homes as well as part of a “pet hotel.” Shuuko is also registered with several of the neighborhood police departments for temporary care and is always ready to accept animals to prevent them from being euthanized.

When ferrets arrive at the shelter, the volunteers check their condition and their personality to see if they are ready to live with humans. Sometimes they can be aggressive due to fear and hunger, but are often in better shape after a few months of rehabilitation. When the animals are considered improved, the Ferret Rescue Center’s volunteers will give them to someone they trust to take care of them in the outside world. Moreover, if they are wounded, in their bodies or in their hearts, or if they have a disease that cannot be treated or improved, they will spend their days at a loving home or in the shelter, depending on their circumstances. An aggressive behavior may be a result from a lack of human contact, for example, for animals that have lived for several months in a cage, possibly in a store before being sold. In this case, patience and a little stoicism make it possible to overcome the ferret’s mistrust and fear.

“I am aware that ferrets are treated as vermin in some countries, but the idea behind our rescue center is that we do not want them to be abandoned or mistreated. Abandoning a ferret almost certainly means condemning it to death. We do not want them to live painful lives, because they are affectionate creatures that can establish a strong bond with their owners, similar to the one cats might develop. We want them to experience happiness and also delicious food as much as possible,” Shuuko said.

You can check out the ferret photo gallery below to see some of the furry friends Shuuko has helped at the FRC.

Behind the darkness, light shone through

In the many years she’s dedicated to improving these animals’ destinies, she’s encountered numerous stories that left an indelible mark upon her. There were many difficult experiences, because when the Center takes in an animal from somewhere, it does not always mean that the ferret is healthy. Some had to be cut because their fur had hardened into a tar-like substance, some baby ferrets had fractures all over their bodies, others were so emaciated that you could see the joints of their skulls, and others still were already too sick to be treated and had to be put down.

But behind so much darkness, light shone through at times. Shuuko remembers this specific kit who had been put in a plastic bag and dumped in a roadside park. He was covered in excrement and smelled very bad. The FRC took him in, cleaned him up, cared for him, and found a loving home to take him in. He got along well with the other ferrets in his new home, and at the peak of his new life, he participated in a ferret show in Japan. At the ferret show, the ranking is based on ferret-like features and beauty, just like at a dog or cat show. He participated in the beautiful fur category and won third place.

“I do not care about gender, color, or quality of fur. But I felt that ferret showed how healthy he was by winning the award. It was the most gratifying thank you for us at the Center. And even if he is no longer with us, I know he had a happy life, after such a traumatic beginning,” Shuuko said.

Keep the flame lit

Overall, it is clear that volunteering with the FRC has made quite the impact on Shuuko and her life.

“Dedicating time to this local community endeavor has given me great opportunities to cooperate with people and other organizations who share the same goals in life: to develop positive, warm, and empathetic relationships. To me, the key is not trying too hard, though: do not burn through your passion all at once, but keep the flame lit over time,” Shuuko said.

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