Animal Use and Abuse Statistics: The Shocking Numbers

by Stephanie Ernst

Published October 05, 2008 @ 07:10AM PST

Listed here are statistics in the following categories: Animals Used as Food, Animal Agriculture and Environment, Animal Testing, Companion Animals, Animals in Human Entertainment, Fur, Wildlife, and Activism.

Animals Used as Food

10 Billion, 27 Million, and 19,000:

Every year, 10 billion domesticated land animals are slaughtered for food in the United States—27 million each day and 19,000 every minute.

50 Billion and 1,680:
Worldwide, the yearly slaughter count is more than 50 billion. Every second, 1,680 animals are killed for food.
Most farmed animals are killed when they are barely adolescents or even younger, such as the "broiler" chickens raised for meat who are slaughtered at only 6–7 weeks old.

250 Million Chicks:
The U.S. egg industry suffocates, gases, or grinds up alive 250 million male chicks each year; they are not profitable because they will never produce eggs and are not bred to grow at an unnatural speed like broiler chickens.

5.5 Million Calves:
The 4.5 million calves in Europe and 1 million calves in the United States annually destined to become veal are forcibly pulled away from their mothers—dairy cows—within hours, or at most 1–2 days, of birth. The milk produced naturally by the mother's body for her calf, who normally would suckle for 6 to 12 months, is to be taken for sale to humans, so the calf is fed nutritionally deficient formula. His movement is severely restricted, to give his flesh the texture and color desired by human consumers.

90 Percent and 80 Percent of Soybeans:
More than 90 percent of soybean meal grown in the United States is used to feed animals being raised for human food; these animals also consume 80 percent of corn grown in the United States.

Animal Agriculture and Environment

70 Percent of Land:
In the Amazon, 70 percent of once-forested land is now used for grazing cattle.

18 Percent of Greenhouse Gas Emissions:
Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions—more than all the planes, trains, ships, and automobiles in the world combined. Animal agriculture is responsible for an astonishing 65 percent of nitrous oxide emissions (a gas with a global warming potential [GWP] 296 times that of CO₂), 37 percent of methane (GWP 23 times that of CO₂), and 9 percent of CO₂.

37 Percent of Pesticides and 50 Percent of Antibiotics:
Animal agriculture uses 37 percent of all pesticides and 50 percent of antibiotics and contributes enormously to water pollution, endangering human and nonhuman animal health and life.

Animal Testing

25-100 Million Animals:
More than 25 million vertebrate animals are used in testing in the United States each year—including monkeys, chimpanzees, beagles and other dogs, cats, rabbits, mice, birds, farm animals, and still other sentient beings. After the experiments conclude, essentially all of the animals who have survived the research are killed. When invertebrate animals are considered, the estimated number rises to as high as 100 million.

50 Drugs:
Despite all this suffering in the name of determining safety for humans, as of 2002, more than 50 drugs tested on animals and approved by the FDA as safe had been taken off the market or relabeled because they had caused serious illnesses and death in humans. The FDA itself estimated in 2006 that 92 percent of drugs that pass animal testing fail in human clinical trials.

Companion Animals

6 to 8 Million Dogs and Cats:
Every year, 6 to 8 million dogs and cats enter shelters, and 3 to 4 million shelter dogs and cats are killed.

80 Percent of Puppies:
Most pet store puppies (and 80% of the American Kennel Club's business) come from puppy mills, mass-breeding operations in which ill, suffering dogs are kept in deplorable conditions. They breed between 2 and 4 million puppies each year.

Examples of Animals in Human Entertainment

7,600 Puppies and 11,400 Young or Adult Dogs:
In 2000 approximately 7,600 greyhound puppies deemed not fast enough to race were killed, as were an estimated 11,400 "retired" dogs. Retired greyhounds, who suffer greatly as racers, may also be sold to research labs or used to breed future litters.

100 Percent of Major Circuses:
Every major circus featuring animals has been cited for violations of the minimal standards of care under the Animal Welfare Act. The very nature of traveling circuses means that beyond cruel, highly abusive training and fear-induced performances, the elephants and other animals must also endure countless hours and days confined in boxcars and trailers.

Fur

350,000 Baby Seals:
In 2006 more than 350,000 baby seals were killed, mostly by clubbing, in the annual Canadian seal hunt; 98 percent of the slaughtered harp seals were less than 3 months old. Forty-two percent of the seals in a 2001 study by veterinarians were found to be skinned while alive and conscious.

30 Million:
More than 30 million mink, foxes, chinchillas, and other animals are killed on fur farms each year, by such methods as electrocution and poisoning. Neither fur farms nor the methods by which trapped animals can be killed are regulated by any U.S. laws.

2 Million Dogs and Cats:
Some fur trims and clothes labeled as fake or as from another animal are actually made from dog and cat fur exported by China, where the more than 2 million dogs and cats per year killed for fur suffer unspeakable cruelties, including sometimes the documented horror of being skinned alive.

Wildlife

3,000 Gorillas and 4,000 Chimpanzees:
Each year, roughly 3,000 gorillas, 4,000 chimpanzees, and hundreds of bonobos are killed for bushmeat in Africa—a devastating practice enabled and encouraged by the logging industry. Orphaned young usually die as well.

2 Million Wild Animals:
The federal Wildlife Services agency, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, kills 2 million wild animals per year (2.4 million in 2007), including endangered species, at the request of cattle ranchers, hunters, and municipalities and uses such tactics as poisoning, shooting, and even beheading and burning alive. The poisoning method in particular results in the indiscriminate killing of many "non-target" individuals and species.

300,000 Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises:
The global fishing industry's many problems include the devastating issue of bycatch: yearly, billions of ocean animals are caught unintentionally and thrown back, dead or dying, including 100 million sharks and rays; approximately 300,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises; 250,000 endangered turtles; and hundreds of thousands of birds. Shrimp fisheries are perhaps the worst offenders, with commonly more than 80 percent bycatch. Numerous species are facing extinction because of fishing and bycatch.

Activism

Zero:
In direct action tactics to save animals in the United States, no human being has ever been killed or harmed.