Milk Mystery - quite confounding

I found it quite surprising that the benefits of milk and poulty products were unknown to the Japanese till way into the 20th century. The general belief was that milk was for the small ones of the cows or the horses. People seemed surprised when milk was used for drinking by the westerners during Meiji Restoration. I think, i remember reading about Laflacio Hearn consuming milk (or was it someone else?) and people being quite shocked.

Chickens were bred for their eggs and not for their meat. In the travels by Isabella Bird, there was this section, where her guide bribes villages to get chicken so that they can be killed and cooked. There was this funny incident when a villager after parting with her chicken was so traumatized that she returned the money and took back the chicken grieving as if a family member was being affected.