Pet Detective - Emerging Job in Japan

Pet Detective - Emerging Job in Japan

Mr. Endo started this work at the age of 20. In 2011, he founded a lost pet rescue team with 10 members to help families find their pet.

Cats in Japanese life

In Egyptian culture, cats are sacred animals. They have traveled thousands of miles and come to Japan since about the sixth century. Today, cats have become common pets in families and close friends with lonely old people.

Cats are a popular symbol in entertainment, TV shows, movies, or literary works. Even in some Japanese railway stations, cats are appointed as "station chiefs".

However, cats prefer to wander and therefore are more likely to get lost than dogs and other pets. These 'bushes' have made their owners do not know how many times.

Journey to find the lost cat

Masataka Endo is a pet detective but unlike the fictional character in Ace Ventura (1994), this is a seriously serious job.

Mr. Endo started this work at the age of 20. In 2011, he founded a lost pet rescue team with 10 members to help families find their pet.

Each year, his team handles between 500 and 600 shifts seeking pets and nearly 80% of them involve stray cats. The team also found it easier to find cats than other pets such as birds or dogs as they move faster and harder to guess than cats.

Customers come to Endo for a variety of reasons. Some of the first cats are not familiar with their behavior and accidentally let them run away. Other lost the owner of the vacation with the family. In some cases, owners of these cats, for various reasons, do not have the time to look for them, they go to the search centers for lost pets and ask for help.

However, employers often do not use the pet search service immediately. Often, after a few days of frustration, they find him to help find his four-legged friend.

According to Endo, summer is a busy time for pet detectors. In the spring of the job search becomes difficult when the wandering cat looking for mates.

Finding a stray cat is based on many factors. Pet detectors will analyze the identity, sex, personality of the cat and its environment, or even cat domestic or outdoor.

After interviewing the owners, detectives will spread out search alerts, familiarize themselves with the residents living around the stray house and trap them within 3 days.

Normally, to find a peanut cat, you need to put 100 flyers in many places and distribute about 1,000 flyers. Customers will spend a considerable amount, about ¥ 79,000 (nearly 17 million) to hire professional detective in three days, including consulting services. However, many people are still willing to spend that money to find about their little friend.

Endo's job is not easy, even dangerous. He often crawls on uneven, flat terrain. At times he and his colleagues had to walk for nine hours a day, scour the alleyways at night but were accused of being a thief. During 20 years of searching for lost pets, Mr. Endo has walked an average of 30km a day.

In addition to the difficulties of work, Endo also has the joy of finding cats stray or witness the happy tears of families to meet their cats.