Cruelty in shrimp farms exposed, #ShrimpsMatter campaign launched!

In August, Animal Rights Center Japan, the leading animal protection organization in Japan, launched a campaign to raise awareness about farmed shrimps and prawns, whose lives are sacrificed in greater numbers than other animals used for food. In particular, this campaign will inform consumers of the fact that one eye of the female breeder shrimp/prawn is removed in most farms.

More than 90% of the shrimps sold in Japan are imported, about 6 billion individuals every year. 80% of them come from Asian countries such as India, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and almost all of them are farmed.

In these farms typically, the young female shrimps and prawns get one of their eyes cut off with forceps, or the eye is sliced open with a razor and the inside squeezed out with fingers, all without anesthesia. The reason and images for this horrifying practice are posted on the campaign site: https://arcj.org/en/shrimp

According to an awareness survey commissioned by ARCJ, 3 out of 4 people in Japan think that shrimps cannot feel pain. However, it has been scientifically proven that crustaceans feel pain. For example in Australia, a company that was cutting the lower bodies of lobsters alive was convicted.

According to the same awareness survey, after learning such information, more than half of the people “want to avoid shrimps from farms that cut off the eyes” and “want the certification criteria of aquaculture certification labels to include the condition that shrimps are from farms that do not remove the eyes”.

To avoid shrimps from farms that cut off the eyes, practically one must reduce shrimp consumption.

Even certification labels that take animal welfare into consideration do not prohibit eye ablation. On the other hand, EU organic certification standards have banned it for more than 10 years. SeaJoy, one of the largest producers of farmed shrimps in Latin America, has been breeding without eye ablation since 2016 by improving the breeding environment. CP Foods, the world’s largest shrimp producer, also announced last year that it would stop performing eye ablation by employing biotechnology.

This campaign will raise awareness of the current situations of farmed shrimps and prawns through posters, online advertisements, and street activism throughout Japan, and encourage reducing consumption of farmed shrimps. In January of next year, we plan to commission the awareness survey again to measure changes in awareness and opinions among people in Japan.

The campaign activities through January 2022 will be funded by the international animal protection organization Compassion in World Farming International (CIWFI). CIWFI is the organization that has successfully led the EU’s “End the Cage Age” initiative to abolish caging of farmed animals.

Awareness survey results

[Survey sponsor] Certified nonprofit organization Animal Rights Center Japan
[Survey period] 2021/7/29 – 2021/8/5
[Valid responses] 2884 (of which 2783 were in July)
[Survey method] Internet survey (using internet monitors by a general surveying company)
[Survey participants] Among the 3.5 million+ internet monitors, male and female 15 years old and above throughout Japan

About Animal Rights Center Japan

ARCJ is an animal protection organization in Japan that exposes the current states of animals, improves animal welfare, and promotes animal rights. Mainly, it carries out activities to protect animals used for food such as eggs and meat, and animals used for clothing materials such as fur and angora, create an action network of animal rights throughout Japan, and promote ethical consumption. Its anti-fur campaign, launched in 2005, has reduced Japan’s fur consumption by 80% in 10 years.

Contact: Animal Rights Center Japan survey representative Yuki Takahashi
03-3770-0720　https://arcj.org
12-3 Udagawa-cho #1009, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo