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In the Kasumigaura area of Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture, lotus root cultivation using marshland is thriving. The problem has been widely publicized since the Animal Rights Center reported in 2009 that wild birds have been damaged after bird nets (overhead bird nets) were put up in these lotus root fields in 2004. Discussions were also held with Ibaraki Prefecture on February 20, 2009. The Problem of Bird Nets in Kasumigaura Lentil Fields Some farmers put bird nets over the top of their growing lotus root fields to prevent feeding damage by wild birds. However, wild birds enter the field through the gap between the net and the field or through…
Animal fur (real fur) tortures animals, kills them, becomes a breeding ground for zoonotic diseases, and is bad for the environment… This unethical and unnecessary “material” is steadily heading towards zero. We calculated the import volume of fur and fur products from the 2022 Ministry of Finance trade statistics. In 2022, compared to 2021, numbers have decreased slightly as below: The fur itself decreased by 11.76% in number and by 19.12% in weight. Fur products decreased by 9.1% in number and by 2.15% in weight. When converted to the number of animals, the amount of 97,470 animals have decreased. In 2021, the number of victims was 496,900, but in 2022,…
In Japan, pigs and cattle are basically stunned at slaughterhouses before being decapitated and bled to death. However, this process is not 100% complete. This is because it fails. If the fainting process works correctly, the animal will suffer less pain and fear in the final stages. Therefore, efforts to improve the accuracy and reduce the number of failures must always be ongoing. Even one failure from the human point of view is a 100% failure for the animal, and there is no way to recover from it. This Japanese video is from a very common slaughterhouse. Failures are very common. Some people who have visited slaughterhouses will say “it…
The avian flu is raging and companies are being forced to stop producing and selling egg products. This seems to be a major opportunity for food companies to learn about the risks of livestock production for the first time since the mad cow disease. The current avian influenza pandemic is one of the H5N1 subtype A influenza viruses, which mutated into a highly pathogenic strain in 2003 and is potent in several ways. Development of Avian Influenza Avian influenza is a type A flu that infects humans, pigs, and many other animals, all of which come from birds. Originally circulating in waterfowl as a natural host, the virus has infected…
558,181 chickens were boiled alive in 2021, revealed by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) data. The number had continuously increased and hit the worst in 2021, which indicates there had been no efforts to minimize such errors at the slaughterhouses. There are two types of facilities when we talk about slaughterhouses for chickens. One is to slaughter chickens for meat, and the other is to cull laying hens. In 2021, the number increased in the facility to kill chickens for meat while we saw slight improvements in the facility for hens. The impact is huge for the former facility since over 700 million birds are killed for…
What is necessary to resolve the common issue of human beings, the earth and animals is to change animal proteins to better ones and intake them less. Efforts to save animals, promoting animal welfare and veganism are inseparable, as are two wheels of a vehicle. Now that companies are required to work on solving social issues through their core business, the Imperial Hotel TOKYO, after a talk with Animal Rights Center Japan, has started offering “vegan French gastronomy” and “banana smoothie with soy milk and soy flour” as wellness accommodation at the end of last year. Furthermore, they announced they will offer a “sustainable room service plan,” in which people…
On November 30, 2022, Kayoko Natsume, a ward assembly member, asked a general question about animal welfare at a regular meeting of the ward assembly of Katsushika Ward, Tokyo. The question covered three items: the first was about TNR of community cats and the subsidy system, the second was about evacuation with pets. And third, she spoke about the introduction of cage-free egg feeding. Citing the trend of eliminating cage keeping in the EU and the Cabinet Office cafeteria’s cage-free program as examples, she said that Katsushika Ward should also work on this as part of the SDGs and set a good example for society. She stated “Cage-free chicken rearing…
There is a trend in other countries to stop using animals for entertainment, such as circuses, as it is an inappropriate environment for keeping wild animals. In this case, wild animals are those other than domesticated animals. No matter how many generations of wild animals are bred, their innate ecology never leaves them. Therefore, animals bred in captivity in Japan are also considered wild animals and are subject to regulations in 58 countries*1 worldwide. There are two directions in which animal welfare problems in circuses can go: problems that cannot always be prevented in the circus entertainment environment, no matter how careful they are, and problems that can occur if…
A new children’s book “Someday under the Sky Sakura School Hikari Newspaper” has been published. This children’s book should be read by all elementary and junior high school students, or even adults. One day, Asuka met an injured chicken in a corner of a poultry farm.By saving the chicken, which was about to be disposed of, she learns about the reality of this poultry farm.What is the happiness of the chickens and what is our responsibility? ……Asuka was troubled and decided to write a newspaper and publish it. Amazon As those who have visited the Animal Rights Center’s website and social medias know, chickens die and are killed every day…
On Dec.10th, 2022, International Animal Rights Day, we conducted street outreach activities on 3 spots, i.e. Shibuya (Tokyo), Iwate and Shiga, to appeal promotion of animal welfare and protection of animal rights. In Shibuya, a seminar on “animal welfare and rights” was also given. Dec.10th falls on “Human Rights Day.” Every person has the right to live one’s own life as a human being. In the same way, animals have the right to live their own lives. We believe the issue of animal rights is also the issue of animal welfare, just as the issue of human rights is also the issue of human being’s welfare. In the seminar, Ms.…
In pig farms, animals die in breeding facilities more than any other places. They die not just because of miscarriage, but they also get slaughtered by hand by humans. Piglets are killed every day because they are unable to stand up, too weak, or too slow to develop. In this farm, piglets get smashed against the edge of the gestation crates, which results in slow and painful death. It’s also a common practice to kill them by injecting disinfectant, Pacoma, which causes blood coagulation in their heart. This method is not permitted per international standards as it’s not an approved usage of the infectant. Some also kill piglets by using…
Fishe are sentient being so that it has even been analyzed that “the perceptual and cognitive abilities of fishes are similar to or even exceed those of other vertebrates.” In many countries, fish are included in the range of animal species that are protected by law as long as they are the same vertebrate. Even with Japan’s lagging law, although amphibians and fish are not included in the scope of penalties, they are within the scope of the Animal Protection Law. The OIE’s Animal Welfare Code also does not include ornamental fish, but it does provide various recommendations based on scientific evidence for the welfare of farmed fish. In November…
Though it’s yet to be seen since we have two more months to go, 2022 will be a year of great success for the Animal Rights Center in light of animal welfare in the agriculture field. These achievements will carry us forward into a new era, but we’d like to first cover our history of dialogues with stakeholders in this article. Our history of Company Engagement in animal welfare In the era of Sustainable Development Goals(SDG), the Animal Rights Center has been working closely with corporations while hoping we can ultimately change their producers’ actions indirectly. As a part of our ongoing efforts to minimize animal suffering, the Animal Rights…
On November 8th 2022, Genki Sudo councilor raised a question at the diet session in regards to male chicks who get killed just a day after they were born. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) response to his particular question about the number of male chickens killed in Japan was quite intriguing: “We have no statistics to show how many male chickens are born and slaughtered specifically. That said, Japan Poultry Breeders and Hatcheries Association estimates there were about 110,000,000 hens produced in 2021 so I would guess there were about the same number of male chicks.“ Supposedly 110 million birds are born to just get culled but…
More companies agree with “cage-free eggs” initiatives. What is the cage-free egg declaration? It means that companies publicize their intention to switch all of their eggs to cage-free ones. This is being carried out by lots of companies worldwide. Companies publicizing the cage-free egg declaration are now more than 180 in Japan, the number being expected to increase in future. Battery cage rearing, a typical industrial livestock rearing method that cause serious environmental pollution, is considered so inhumane that it is being discontinued in international communities. For further details, see here “What is cage-free?” and “Definitions of the Cage-free Policy corporations should establish” *Kioritei(Shibuya-ward) A ramen noodle shop in Shibuya-ward,…
Kaidansha Inc., which has brands such as STOF and bedsidedrama, Parallel Earth Inc. of ZECHIA, and Maker’s Shirts Kamakura Co., Ltd. have newly joined fur-free companies! All these companies are and will not deal in animal fur. STOF and bedsidedrama of Kaidansha have never dealt with real fur in the past and are consciously dealing with eco-fur. The STOF brand concept is “clothes with a story”, in which the story of being kind to animals is also hidden. ZECHIA Parallel Earth has been at the forefront of ethical and sustainable apparel trends, launching an earth-friendly brand line since 2011. We believe that Maker’s Shirt Kamakura always a choice for business…
On October 2, 2022, World Day for Farmed Animals, we partnered with the Animal Rights Center Iwate and Shiga to carry out simultaneous actions in three locations across the country. During the day, we held animal rights workshops in Shibuya, Shiga and online, followed by a demonstration in Shibuya, Shiga and Iwate at the same time. Approximately 50 animal rights activists from across Japan attended the workshop. After the lecture, participants asked many questions and their enthusiasm for their activities came through clearly.We’ realized, once again, that a lot of activists are doing their best to protect animals through trial and error. At the demonstration in Shibuya, we, with around…
The Act on Welfare and Management of Animals stipulates, as a penalty, that to drain or weaken an animal by raising it or to keep it in a place where the density of breeding is clearly insufficient. However this regulation is not functioning and abnormally overcrowded rearing is rampant across Japan. While meat chicken farms are also extremely crowded compared to global standards, on this article we will explain the abnormal breeding environment of laying hens in Japan. Rearing density of Japan’s layer poultry farms The rearing densty practiced in Japan’s largest egg producer, (which went bankrupt and filed for corporate reorganization in 2022), is 285cm2 per bird. It’s 15cm×19cm.…
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer demand for cage-free eggs has increasing. Looking at the sales trends of other products, it can be inferred that consumer psychology has an impact. The psychology of consumers is that they want to eat something good at home because they can’t go anywhere, or they want to take in something good for their body to build their immunity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when people could hardly go out for shopping, food delivery businesses such as Co-op grew significantly. Last year, demand of cage-free eggs at Co-ops throughout Japanincreased by more than 100% over the previous year. (The demand has become twice as much as the…
Koichi HOSOKAWA, Professor, Japan Women’s University More and more people consider pets to be family members. The term “companion animal” is also becoming more common. On the other hand, abuse and abandonment of pets and ill-treatment in the pet industry are often in the news. If you kill or injure someone else’s animal, you can be punished under criminal law for damaging property. However, this provision does not apply if the animal’s owner does the same. It is a crime to destroy someone else’s property, and animals are simply treated as property. The crime of damaging property is punishable by imprisonment of up to 1 year or a fine of…
The multi-partisan parliamentary group aiming for zero killing of dogs and cats has established a project team for amending the Animal Welfare Act. Since its launch on August 25, 2023, the PT has held 21 meetings to hear from stakeholders and deliberate on the direction of amendments. Out of these 21 sessions, however, only one touched on livestock animals, and just one on laboratory animals. Despite 1 billion livestock animals being killed annually, the issue remains far from the priorities of lawmakers. In the sole PT meeting addressing livestock, the discussions showed promise, but it is unlikely to expect significant amendments by 2025 at this rate. 17th PT: Hearings on…
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