In response to an inquiry from Animal Rights Center Japan, a farm restaurant Tamagoya Kitchen directly managed by Nodoka Farm in Nagawa Town, Nagano Prefecture, rearing chickens free-range for 32 years, responded that all the eggs they use are already cage-free and that they would support the cage-free declaration.
This farm uses a free-range rearing method, which is quite rare in Japan.
The owner says,
We have been practicing free-range rearing since 32 years ago when caged rearing was the norm.
Free-range rearing was a result of thinking about how to create a healthy environment for chickens and how to make better eggs.
A healthy environment for chickens is, of course, free-range rearing that respects the original ways of life! The chickens and their eggs that are kept in small dirty cages with no chance of walking their whole lifetime cannot be healthy.
In Japan, over 90% of the farms uses battery cage rearing, confining chickens in cages.
It’s misleading to say that that’s healthy, and it’s definitely not natural.
Caged chickens
On the other hand, there do exist a few cage-free egg farms, which allow chickens to roam freely.
Cage-free chickens (not the farm where Tamagoya Kitchen sources eggs from. Another cage-free farm.)
Caged rearing is being abolished all over the world, and Japan’s animal welfare is currently far behind.
A simple thing we can do to reduce the number of hens who continue getting exploited in their cages and go through life immobilized is for the consumers to stop buying cage-reared eggs and eliminate our egg consumption in consideration of the chickens.
People who become aware of the actual situations and make humane and ethical choices today are what will lead to a sustainable future.
