How To Do Animal Rights. Animal Statistics

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

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Chapter Sections

1. Summary

2. Chickens

3. Pigs

4. Cattle

5. Fish

6. Meat Consumption

7. Fur-bearers

8. Experimental Animals

How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals

Chapter 7

Animal Numbers Raised & Killed

1. Summary

Here are estimates of the numbers of animals people eat, wear and experiment on. This is a limited selection as the kind of animals and their numbers are vast and estimates are not always available. Click the headings for more information.

Table 1. Estimates of the Number of Animals People Kill Annually Worldwide & Human Meat Consumption.
	Annual Number or Mass
Chickens	70,000,000,000
Pigs	1,200,000,000
Cattle	300,000,000
Fish	132,000,000 tonnes
Meat Consumption	250,000,000 tonnes 40 kg per human
Fur-bearers	Farmed mink: 30,000,000+ Farmed fox: 5,000,000+ Wild fur-bearers: millions
Experimental Animals	41,000,000 to 100,000,000

Interpreting Statistics

Total Counts vs Spot Counts

Bear in mind when reading animal statistics whether they are (a) the total number of animals who existed during the course of a whole year or (b) a count of all the animals existing on just one day in a year (eg 1st of January or 30th June). The latter can be called a ‘spot count’ and is always less than the former. Sources of statistics often do not make clear which kind of figure they are using.

Commercially Viable Numbers vs Absolute Numbers

Bear in mind when reading animal statistics whether they include (a) only commercially viable adult animals or (b) all animals - living and dead, young and old. A good example of this is chicken statistics. Half the number of chickens are not recorded on official statistics because they are male chicks killed soon after hatching and go to make fertiliser and pet food. These chicks disappear from official chicken counts as almost all adult chickens are female.