In times of natural disaster, people's safety and well-being are naturally put first. The same, though, can't always be said for pets, which are also victims in such calamities.
But thanks to Ryunosuke Tokuda, a veterinarian who runs an animal hospital in the city of Kumamoto, that wasn't the case when a series of earthquakes rocked the prefecture in April last year.
Instead, pets — and their owners — found shelter at Ryunosuke Animal Hospital when other evacuation shelters turned animals away and forced many people to keep their pets outside or with them in their cars.