Have you ever wondered how many animals are killed every year?
According to the latest research, mankind destroyed over 60% of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish on Earth. Moreover, the most horrifying situation has developed in South and Central America, where, due to the deforestation of wild forests, the population of vertebrates has decreased by 89%. Every two months, a portion of the tropical Savannah the size of London just disappears.
Perhaps, the statistics of the world organization FAO can provide the exact number of the killed animals. Keep in mind, it is only the official data. Let’s round up these numbers.
Based on the recent calculation, for the sake of meat and skin, we kill:
About 70 billion animals every year;
5.5 billion animals every month;
180 million animals every day;
7.5 million animals every hour;
125 thousand animals every minute;
2 thousand animals every second.
And these are only official data on land “agricultural” animals.
Considering that, just for the sake of meat and fur, people kill about 70 billion domestic “agricultural” animals every year, which is almost 8 times more than in previous decades, while the number of people increased only 2.27 times. So, it is not difficult to assume that the number of killed animals, today, is much higher.
According to some reports, this number is 100 billion animals per year.
The situation with marine life and its inhabitants is much sadder than it seems. Since fishing vessels can only bring ashore the species they are licensed to catch, most of the animals are thrown overboard, usually dead or severely crippled. These statistics apply only to those animals that are officially caught, i.e. the real scale of the damage is much greater.
If in 1950, according to FAO, 18 million tons of aquatic animals were caught, then today there were already 150 million tons.
As for fur animals, more than 100 million animals are killed for fur every year.
Medical researches and experiments claim the lives of more than 150 million living beings.
You can add another 100 million broken destinies to the above figures.
Here we did not take into account statistics in the entertainment industry (circuses, zoos, hunting, photo business, etc.), as well as the killing of cats and dogs. Photographers with a monkey or a parrot on their shoulders offer the services in crowded places, and many cannot resist the adorable animal, supporting a lucrative but cruel business. The pet owner tries to make the animals safe for the client: they pull out claws, teeth, pump them with sedatives. At the end of the season, most monkeys, parrots, and iguanas are euthanized. Keeping them in the off-season is very expensive.
There is no sense to hope that after reading these facts, people will immediately rush to the protection of poor animals, sign petitions calling for the closure of circuses, or suddenly everyone will become vegetarians at once.
Keep those facts in mind, and stop supporting the violence against our furry friends!