Canadians Killed More Than 750 Million Animals For Food in 2015

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April 28, 2016

 

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Slaughter reports from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada reveal that we killed at least 750,409,569 land animals for food in 2015.This is an increase from previous years, mostly due to an increase in the number of chickens killed. In recent years, we’ve killed roughly 620 million chickens each year. This number jumped to 640 million in 2014 and 660 million in 2015.

Here are the total number of animals slaughtered in Canada in 2015 by species:

Meat chickens: 660,959,987

Egg-layer hens: 36,526,578

Turkeys: 21,477,602

Ducks and geese: 5,989,919

Pigs: 21,186,243

Adult cows: 2,672,806

Calves: 225,530

Sheeps and lambs: 557,851

Goats: 61,048

Bisons: 14,186

Rabbits: 669,873

Horses: 67,946

These numbers don’t include:

  • More than 90 million tonnes of fin fishes like salmons (they are only counted by weight) killed in Canadian fish farms.
  • Tens of millions of male chicks killed at birth in the egg industry.
  • Millions of animals who died of disease or injuries on farms or en route to slaughter.
  • Thousands of deers, elks, and wild boars killed in Canadian slaughterhouses for which 2015 data is not available.

Photo: Louise Jorgensen, taken outside a chicken slaughterhouse in Toronto.

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