Land Animals Who Died per American Carnivore 2013

(Sea animal data for 2013 not yet available. See previous years: All animals 2011)

In 2013, the average American meat-eater was responsible for the deaths of 26.5 land animals, including:

In all, 8.1 billion land animals died to feed Americans in 2013.
Over a lifetime, this makes 2,088 land animals per meat eater.

For changes over time, see: Trends 2000-2013 


That's about the same number as in 2012 (97 million, or less than 0.5% more).

  • Turkey deaths saw a dramatic 7% drop, or 15 million fewer.
  • Cattle and turkey deaths were all their lowest levels since at least 2000.

Since peaking in 2004, US meat eaters eat 5 fewer land animals apiece — a 16% drop.

  • That's 785 million fewer than in 2005, in spite of a rising population.
  • All land animals have seen the downward trend except egg chickens.

For details, see:

 

What these numbers include

These numbers are not derived from slaughter figures (except for rabbits, included in the summary). They include deaths from all causes, including: disease, injury, culling, discarded male egg-type chickens, production of food that is discarded and not consumed, etc.
These numbers are global. They include deaths abroad for imported animal products, and exclude US deaths for exported animal products.
These numbers only include deaths after birth/hatching. Fetal deaths are not considered.
 
Sources
Land animal numbers are all based on US government statistics: U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and the U.S. Census Bureau. The only exceptions are U.N. statistics on duck imports/exports, and independent polls of the numbers of vegetarians and vegans.
 

Calculated by Noam Mohr, May 2014, noammohr@gmail.com