How Prairie Pests Became Pampered Pets in Tokyo
By Cameron W. Barr Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
June 21, 1996 | TOKYO
The story sounded just bizarre enough to be true. Last month, a brief news item said a Colorado man had invented a vacuum-powered machine that sucks prairie dogs - those burrowing squirrels of the Great Plains - right out of their holes. And he was selling them as pets, because prairie dogs were going for $450 apiece in New York and $700 in Japan.
Prairie dogs in Tokyo? The concept demanded further research. The transition the rodents were apparently undergoing brimmed with cross-cultural irony: from Texas burrows to cramped Tokyo apartments, which even the Japanese call "rabbit hutches." And not only that: A machine that sucks up prairie dogs? Was this cruelty to animals?
The item seemed like a gift of manna on a slow news day. But after a few very-long-distance conversations with the Colorado man, his wife, and a pet broker, it turned out the prairie-dog vacuum story was true, with a few extra twists and turns that had yet to be reported.
Apparently the Japanese said they made funny noises instead of barking
The guy said you have to teach them to bark in Japanese.