A 42-year-old butcher in western Japan has developed an emergency food that can also be eaten by pets when families take shelter with limited resources in times of disaster.

Akihiko Yasui, who runs a butcher shop in Habikino, Osaka Prefecture, says his experience in a powerful typhoon last September inspired him to create such an emergency food.

(Akihiko Yasui)

Although his house was unharmed by the storm, his store was damaged with windows broken. At the time, Yasui had worried about how to take care of his pet chihuahua should he need to evacuate.

While looking into the matter, he also learned that many pets suffered at shelters due to a lack of pet food and water following torrential rains in western Japan in July of last year.

After the typhoon, Yasui continued to study methods for taking shelter with pets, eventually earning a private license this spring in pet management during disasters.

( A man shelters his dogs in the back of a truck as a road is submerged after heavy rain in Tosu in Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on July 21, 2019.)

His newly developed emergency food -- dubbed "Sonae," or "preparedness" in Japanese -- features horse meat, a source of protein known to cause few allergy problems.

While adding brown rice and vegetables to the recipe, he took care to limit the amount of salt and increase moisture to prevent pets from suffering dehydration.

The emergency food, which can be kept at room temperature for about a year, sells in 250-gram packs at Yasui's store for 864 yen ($8).

"If you evacuate from home with this, you can secure food for your family and pets for the time being," he said. "My dog also ate the food willingly while I was developing it."