It's a Ferret Life

Man held for abusing ferret

YOKOHAMA: A 30-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly abusing his pet ferret and posting on an Internet bulletin board footage of the animal being abused and apparently frightened.

Shinichi Moriyama, an employee of a major electric appliance maker, was quoted as telling the police that he did it "to relieve stress" from work and that he had killed "20 or 30 ferrets, hamsters and other animals from around November 2005."

Moriyama has allegedly added to his web postings of a ferret such comments as "I bit it in the leg in revenge" for being bitten on his finger, the police said.

His postings prompted calls to police by ferret lovers and animal rights activists, the police said, adding he was arrested in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The specific charge for the arrest is the possible violation of the law concerning the Protection and Control of Animals on the suspicion that at his home on February 12, he hit the ferret on the head several times and tried choking it.

The Japanese law provides for a prison term of up to one year or a fine of 1 million yen for injuring or killing a pet without justifiable reasons.