First-Ever Prosecution for Livestock Abuse: Dairy Cows Abuse in Shimane

An employee was prosecuted on July 13th after a video of him kicking a dairy cow went viral in social media on June 10th 2023. The Animal Rights Center pressed two charges per the Animal Protection Law; one is against this employee based on the Article 44 Clause 2 and the other is based on the Article 48 Clause 2 against Ohdahara Farm. Though the charge against the farm has been dropped, the Animal Rights Center considers the persecution was fair. This is because many abuse cases against livestock were almost always dismissed no matter how horrendous the cases had been. For instance, 35 pigs were starved to death in…

The Cruel Last Day of Hens: Being left for a long time at a slaughterhouse

Many hens in Japan have a short miserable life in a battery cage. The result of an investigation conducted by the Animal Rights Center shows their condition is much crueler than the center had expected. ▾MOVIE | ▾Whistle-blowing and Vilification | ▾The Conditions of Hens at Night | ▾Why is this happening? | ▾Violating Global Standards AND Domestic Law | ▾Shift for Change | ▾Get on with improvements! After hens are used as egg-laying machines for one or two years, they are called waste chickens or mature chickens. They are slaughtered for meat. The meat is used for canned meat products, processed food, frozen food, ground meat, chicken extract, and chicken ham. Their big, but unhealthily white-color bent combs are used for…

Starvation is an Ultimate Form of Animal Abuse

Say NO to Practice of Starving Animal to Death in Industry A broiler chicken company in Wakayama prefecture reportedly starved 140,000 chickens to death in 2020. The company belonged to the Arita Poultry Agricultural Cooperative. According to Wakayama prefecture, a chicken slaughterhouse owned by the same owner of this broiler chicken company went bankrupt first, which resulted in the inability to relocate the chickens , then starvation. They claimed they could not afford putting these chickens down, either. The prefecture didn’t step in to help euthanize the birds, either. And yet, the prefecture promptly executed an aid to clean up the corpses that cost approximately 100 million JPY, and handed…

Slaughterhouses abandon chickens for 72 hours MAFF’s Third Warning

n November 2018, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Wealth (MHLW) released an investigation report on the matter of slaughterhouses cramming chickens in cages and abandoning them for long hours. 72 hours of Abandonment The investigation by the MHLW was mentioned during the deliberation for the Ministry of Forestry, Agriculture, and Fisheries (MAFF) in the Diet on 21st November 2018. According to the report, the MHLW investigated 28 slaughterhouses out of 32 (as of 2016) in the country, excluding three houses in Okayama and one in Fukuoka. Investigations conducted by the MHLW typically focus on sanitary issues. Therefore, the results don’t present the facts that chickens cannot raise their heads…

Farm Animals in Japan

Mother Sows in Captivity:sow stall in Japan A rearing method which has been illegalized in many countries is still used at more than 88% of pig farms in Japan. These are photos taken between 2015 and 2017 at Japanese hog raising farms. Sows are shut in a small cage called a sow stall (gestation create). Sows spend almost all of their entire life in a cage in which they cannot walk or turn. Sows engage in abnormal behaviors such as biting their cages, continuously doing chewing motions without food in their mouths, and drinking water without stopping. The EU banned sow stalls in 2013, and ten states in America have banned them.…

Improve methods to slaughter chickens!

Today, the methods of slaughtering chickens, whether they are for meat or eggs, are to hang them upside down in shackles. Then, they are put into an electrified water tank until unconscious, if they are lucky. Those unlucky ones get their throats (artery) slit while being conscious, bled to death, and then put into boiled water. In order to minimize the sufferings, they should be knocked unconscious or stunned by gas or electricity. Instead, chickens necks are cut without such procedures, then, electricity is used after, in order to let them bleed more or calm the chickens. In the EU, it’s not allowed to cut chickens’ necks without making them…

super overcrowded! Broilers in Japan

Chicken meat for chicken is shipped in 2kg in Europe and the United States, but do you know that it is shipped after thickening to about 3 kg in Japan? Originally, chicken is an animal that grows over 150 days, but broiler has been modified to grow larger in 50 days. They suffer from doing rapid growth.Broilers do not walk naturally. They walk a bit and then sit down. The chickens who lost their natural appearance spend a lot of time in pain, packed in a container after 50 days, being hung upside down, they are neck cut and killed. See detail about broiler (in Japanese) The density in japan…