45 billion animals killed for food in 2000

[After The Rain]

The worldwide number of animals killed for food in 2000 was 45 billion, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. This included 306 million cattle, buffalo, and calves, 1.2 billion pigs, 795 million sheep and goats, and 42.7 billion chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese. The figures exclude some small countries and 'non-slaughter' deaths, which are generally not reported.

These Figures Do Not Include Fish.

http://www.upc-online.org/slaughter/...ter_stats.html

[Michael]

45 BILLION!!?? Holy sh*t! I never thought the number could be that high. Imagine how many of them were tortured their whole lives.

[Veggie4Life139]

That's horrible, it really is...hopefully there will be more veggies and vegans this year and the meat industry will lose some money...also less animals might be killed...HORRIBLE statistics!!!

[spo]

All I can say is that this really depresses me. When will this horrible torture and murder stop? Why, in God's name, are humans so blind to the suffering of animals???
spo

[John]

If you look in the American World Almanac you can see how many "livestock" are in your state.

[PinkLogik]

All those poor souls..... I agree Spo, it's very depressing.

[Evilfluffbunny]

That's too many to even comprehend..... and to think they all suffered and died needlessly, it makes me so angry.

[RockyRaccoon]

I agree evilfluffbunny, I cannot even comprehend that many animals. I've read figures like these before, and just trying to imagine them all is impossible. It's truly horrendous.

From Viva! 'It's time to go veggie' mag -

"The surest way to save animals is not to eat them! By going veggie, the average Brit can, in their lifetime, save a goose and a rabbit, 4 cattle, 18 pigs, 23 sheep, 39 turkeys, 28 ducks, 1,158 chickens and around 2,750 fish."

[Mozbee]

No doubt this murder total has increased.

[Lilyvazz]

That is absouletley disgraceful

[xwitchymagicx]

Thats awful. So many people think that them alone cutting out meat etc won't help the numbers of animals tortured. But it does!!

[Gliondrach]

There are supposed to be six milliard people in the world. That would mean that each person eats 7.5 animals each year. But, many people eat no meat or very little meat. This means that in countries like the UK, Oz and NZ, US and Europe there must be many more than 7 eaten by each person. Many people will eat a dozen chickens in a year.

[adam antichrist]

KFC alone kill so many chickens that if you piled them one on top of the other in under 12 hours it would reach the moon.

[Blueshark]

KFC alone kill so many chickens that if you piled them one on top of the other in under 12 hours it would reach the moon.

That is completely crazy - but true.

[fiamma]

I find that a little hard to believe - there are 384,403 km between here and the moon. KFC are evil, but I don't think they're capable of killing so many birds in such a short time.

[eve]

I hope you will read this, fiamma, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...st_polluters/1

[fiamma]

I certainly will eve; thanks for posting that. I wrote that post a while ago now but my eyes are being opened!!! I'm doing volunteer translation work for the vegetarian society here and I was reading that 70% of the land which has been cleared in the Amazon to make way for pastureland is set to become desert - productivity zero.

[magpie]

Humanity = slaughter
Humanity = seas of blood

Isn't it time we threw out the notion that humans are compassionate, or that to be human is to be humane. Human beings just arn't. Sure there's plenty of 'love' in humanity when it gets people something, like heaven or the adoration of a pet, but when it suits them most human beings are cold blooded murderers, who care nothing for the screams of those they slaughter.

Its all to easy as people to see people through rose coloured spectacles, to see the quantified love and human centered compassion as signs of a 'humane' nature, but how would outsiders see humans, how would a cow or a goat sumarise humanity.

'There be monsters' .....that would probably be it.

[Korn]

Human beings just arn't.

I think they are, until they are influenced into becoming something else.

[magpie]

I think they are, until they are influenced into becoming something else.

I know that on the face of it there's plenty of evidence to suggest that lots of people get influenced by others, but then one of the first things that stuck me about children is that some delight in pulling the wings off flies and some don't. No parent teaches their children to do things like that, at least none that I'm aware of, so the child is expressing something of their own personality. It didn't escape me either that the kind of child who delights in causing suffering is likely to take delight in bullying and other forms of cruelty.

Research conducted by the army after WW2 found that only about 10% of soldiers were doing nearly all the killing, they have since found ways to make all soldiers kill, so it is obviously possible to change what people are, but that first 10% were born murderers that were found to have virtually no compassion or empathy at all, they actually enjoyed slaughtering people.

That 10% who delight in cruelty and suffering, who bully and suppress those around them, aren't they are the people who control human society. Isn't it bullies who rise to the top in nearly all human groupings, whether it's politics, the workplace or religion, bullies predominate.

We do get groups that veer socially towards a more positive way of living, like the Hindus, but then along came the moguls, monsters who delighted in killing cows and brahmins because they were symbols of purity and the beauty of their faith.

The handful of vegis and vegans that exist, they aren't running the world, the bullies and murderers and monsters are. They determine what humanity is, 45 billion slit throats and the seas of blood that humanity is bathed in, that says what human beings are. How can good people ever run things when humanity is poisoned to the core with violent and murderous people and the vast bulk of humanity is apathetic to the suffering of other species.

I find it hard personally to consider that human beings might be monsters, some evolutionary flaw, a creature which is unnatural, even evil, but to me it makes more sense than to think that they are misguided. How misguided can someone be? It could be that societies determine a great part of what most people become, but they don't determine individual personality or none of us would be vegan. Or it could be that vegan/vegi's are clinging to what human beings should be whilst the rest of humanity is continuing to evolve into and be led by monsters and murderers, I can't really say, but I think it should be considered.

[eve]

To me it seems that sadly people are indifferent to what's going on in the world to other human and non-human beings. To such indifferent people, what matters most is their next meal, and it doesn't matter where that meal originates.

[kriz]

I believe most humans have SELECTIVE compassion. Some only love their family and can be compassionate only within their own "tribe". Where as others are able to reach further... and a small percentage can go beyond their own species. It's not so uncommon that even the most horrible sadistic dictator can feel love and compassion for their own family, especially their offsprings. And sometimes you'll find individuals who are able to do tremendeous good for society at large, have good friendships, but might be lacking in the family love department. Humans are weird and complicated.

[applebaby]

that is so selfish when i see people who's compassion and empathy extends only to their own friends and family ... they make the world a terrible place for everyone else to live in. and i hate seeing mothers. the kind that are so rude to your face and then they're so nice to their little baby. just because that is your child and you have to protect it does that mean nobody else on the planet has any worth?? animals?? when i am a mother, i will never be like that. loving only my baby and treating the rest of the world with contempt like they are garbage and don't matter. and i will never feed animals to my baby. my baby doesn't want to eat dead birdies !! =(

[tweqy]

yeah like when people love animals at home but abuse and eat other species.

my aunt and uncle keep dogs; aww they love them soooo much to the point your heart melts(in a nice way) , then they go out and pay for animals to be abused and killed (at market) animals with feelings just like their dogs. these people live in bubbles and cannot visualise like we can. We can see beyond our eye sight; and can actually empathise with animals we will never know or be with. we know that if we met them we would love them just as much as the pets we love at home. aswell we can imagine it would not be nice to be in their position; to be treated so horrible. So i eat homous and salad ..yum yum

[Sarabi]

I had a friend in middle school who always wanted to be a vet (still does as far as I know), and I remember back then describing a juicy chicken sandwich to her which made her crave fast food. Years later, I had euthanized a kitten and described its rotting body to her, and she refused to listen because she was too sensitive. I don't talk to her anymore, but I hope she wouldn't refuse to learn where her food comes from. If I ever saw her again, I'd spare her nothing!

KFC buys 1 billion chickens per year. Anyway, 45 billion is almost eight times the number of humans on the planet. That means eight animals per person...... and just think how the majority of those are eaten by Americans! Not eating meat for one year, how many animals can you save? Now I understand how one guy calculated that he had saved 100 animals after 20 years of veganism.

[michaellanfield]

The stats since 2009 show that over 55-60 billion animals are killed each year worldwide. That does not include fish and seafood. The amount might be doubled or even triple that amount.

[Sarabi]

I saw somewhere that 45 billion chickens are killed per year. One species alone.

[tombenarye1234]

4,000 each second...

[dinkydo]

It makes me want to cry thinking of all those beautiful animals dying for people to unnecessarily eat and makes me angry how big food companies profit from their deaths. I have been vegetarian for 20 years and have recently became vegan and I am alarmed how many items of food have some animal product in their ingredients! Gelatine seems to be everywhere!! Gross!! People are not educated in what they eat and have a closed mind about the whole disgusting subject of animal cruelty and slaughter for the purpose of pure greed. I am so proud I do not contribute towards the billions of animals killed but sadly this number will continue to rise until people are educated. Advertising and media coverage needs to highlight that we do not need to eat dairy products or animal flesh to stay healthy and alive and that any form of animal testing or cruelty is so wrong

[Kosherbean]

This is holocaust.

[DavidT]

The stats since 2009 show that over 55-60 billion animals are killed each year worldwide. That does not include fish and seafood. The amount might be doubled or even triple that amount.

Since 2009? :smile:

To which stats are you referring, michaellanfield? It would be, err, interesting to know the correct figures. It's horrifying if 45 billion+ are slaughtered each year, though it 'only' works out at around one every two months per person.

[rosa1106]

I wish I had become a vegan years ago, it sickens me to think of all the anaimal suffering going on.

[Robinwomb]

It is terribly sickening when you see such statistics, and to know that this does not even include sea animals, privately hunted and privately slaughtered organic farm animals, those killed by cars and other transportation, and wild animals killed by pesticides and other environmental disasters caused by man. Even domestic honey bees are on a terrible decline due to pesticides and exploitation. If humans were to die at a comparable rate, we would be extinct very quickly. But due to insatiable demand for animal food and products, we just keep breeding them and keep the vicious cycle going, although some species such as some wild fish are too far depleted to be replaced and we will soon pay for this.

[Clueless Git]

This is holocaust.

No holocaust ever had a breeding programme to keep it's death camps full.

This is not holocaust. This is something worse.

[BellaTanie]

Much much worse