We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs as our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear ~ Robert Louis Stevenson – Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer.
The Numbers
The following facts are provided to give an idea of the scale of animal exploitation:
- Australia is now the highest consumer per capita of meat (beef, pork, chicken and lamb) in the world. In 2014 this figure was at 90 kg per person. Pork and Chicken consumption are the fastest growing and beef and lamb are on the decline1. Read more about the rate of consumption of meat here.
- Factory farming represents the majority of meat products consumed around the world including Australia. The prevalence of factory farming is increasing all the time as the demand for meat grows. In the USA, the amount of meat produced in factory farms has now reached 99%2.
- To meet the current??demand worldwide, approximately 60 – 70 billion land animals are bred and slaughtered every year (more than 160 million every day).
- ??The number of fish and other sea creatures is much higher, but harder to report accurately as the catch is recorded in tons of fish, and??millions of??other sea creatures are killed and thrown back (bykill)2.?? To learn more about by-catch click here.
- ??According to a study by Fishcount.org.uk, the number of fish killed each year is in the the range of 1 trillion – 2.7 trillion ( a trillion is one thousand billion). Read more here.
- To get another prespective the following calculator shows the number killed since the page was opened.
Animals killed for food since this page was opened
0??marine animals
0??chickens
0??ducks
0??pigs
0??rabbits
0??turkeys
0??geese
0??sheep
0??goats
0??cows and calves
0??rodents
0??pigeons and other birds
0??buffaloes
0??dogs
0??cats
0??horses
0??donkeys and mules
0??camels and other camelids
Credit: Kill Counter created by??adaptt.org
References
[1] Sustainable Table. 2013. Meet your meat. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.sustainabletable.org.au/Hungryforinfo/Introduction/tabid/104/Default.aspx
[2] A Well Fed World. Reverse the ‘livestock revolution’. [ONLINE] Available at: https://awfw.org/livestock-revolution/
