140 Billion!!?!
(Extracted from ADAPTT, http://www.adaptt.org/killcounter.html)
With technology, we can now track how many animals are being slaughtered each year and also how many lives we can save if we go vegetarian. It is shocking to see the reality of the numbers. You might think it is not big deal if you eat meat but the numbers really add up.
Check out this website by ADAPTT (Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow) which actually shows you the number of slaughtered animals increasing before your very eyes. It states that over 50 billion land animals are slaughtered each year for food. The number goes up to 140 billion lives slaughtered when you include marine animals.
Last year alone, us 6.8 billion humans killed and ate about 60 billion land animals, which doesn’t count all the millions more marine animals. Think about it – that’s equivalent to killing about eight times the number of all humans on this earth!
“These numbers do NOT include the many millions of animals killed each year in vivisection laboratories. They do NOT include the millions of dogs and cats killed in animal shelters every year. They do NOT include the animals who died while held captive in the animal-slavery enterprises of circuses, rodeos, zoos, and marine parks. They do NOT include the animals killed while pressed into such blood sports as bullfighting, cockfighting, dogfighting, and bear-baiting, nor do they include horses and greyhounds who were exterminated after they were no longer deemed suitable for racing.” (extracted from ADAPTT, http://www.adaptt.org/killcounter.html)
That’s just to name a few of the terrible examples of the abuse animals go through.. There’s also the cruel fashion industry, animal testing for cosmetics, individual abuse suffered by stray animals or even pets etc. etc. The list goes on and on…
You can also download an animal counter for your computer or download an i-phone app which tracks the rising numbers and shows you how many animals have been killed worldwide every second since you loaded the page.
On a more positive side, there is also a wonderful live saving counter that shows you how many lives you can individually save just by going vegetarian. This is beautiful too – please have a look at how you can make such an impact to others’ lives.
Dr Chan shares in her heart-felt, sincere write-up: “If every animal-lover were to conscientiously reduce the amount of meat they eat (or better still, go veggie), many of these innocent lives can be saved. We can make a difference and save some lives even if we were to just reduce the amount of meat we eat.”
If we stop eating meat, we can already save 100 innocent lives each year. Each of us CAN really make a difference to how many beings are destroyed or relieved of their suffering. We just have to make a simple switch to cut out meat from our diets. Isn’t it worth it for how many lives you can save???
Please please everyone, contemplate on these numbers…. think about how YOU are contributing to making the numbers rise or go down.
I thank people like Dr Chan Kah Yein who are making these issues known and for her hard work to relieve the suffering of animals. Each of us should and can definitely do our part to stop the terrible cruelty to these innocent beings.
Tsem Rinpoche
We have a counterproblem however, to ignore the realities of agriculture is equally irresponsible as slaughtering so many animals every year.
I completely agree with not killing animals. However, isn’t the weight of agriculture on the world’s resources just as damaging karmically? The sheer number of animals slaughtered for agriculture is also tremendous. Vegan diets are by no means “more compassionate” when you look at the machine of agriculture.
http://www.countercurrents.org/jensen250410.htm
A posted article:
http://theogrepages.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/on-ecology/
I agree that by not killing animals, we can generate compassion which will benefit ourselves but I don’t think we will be able to decrease the amount of suffering we cause, by being vegetarians. for instance, If we eat the meat of an animal, maybe we could save the lives of thousands of ants that the animal would stamp over its lifetime or thousands of insects and earthworms that would die while planting crops.
Yeah and how many insects usually die when we drive on the freeway?
Suffering will always be present until you attain enlightenment. Then reality will cease to cause suffering.