Dr. Neal Barnard, Md.: To give a child animal products is a form of child abuse.

ANIMAL AGRICULTURE CLAIMS 10 BILLION VICTIMS IN 2003

The total number of mammals and birds raised and
killed for food in the U.S. for 2003 is expected to
exceed 10 billion for the first time in U.S. history,
according to extrapolation of data from USDA's
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). This
is a 0.7% increase over the 2002 figure of 9,997
million. The number of fishes and other aquatic
organisms killed for human and animal food is not
reported and is likely to exceed that number.

The 2003 total of 10,064 million includes 41.2 million
cattle and calves (up 0.5% from 2002), 133 million
pigs (up 13%), 4.1 million sheep (unchanged), 291
million turkeys (down 5.2%), and 25.5 million ducks
(unchanged), 9,144 million "broilers" (up 0.7%) and
425 million laying hens (up 0.2%).

The 10 billion total reflects both the 847 million
animals reported by the NASS as slaughtered in 2002
and another 847 million, or 8.5% of the total, who
suffered lingering deaths from disease, malnutrition,
injury, suffocation, stress, extermination, or other
deadly factory farming practices, and never reached
the slaughterhouse. Some of these "other" deaths were
reported by the NASS, but most had to be derived from
secondary sources, such as hatchery reports and
interviews with agricultural experts. Examples of
deaths not reported include broiler chickens and
turkeys who die before they are placed in a farm, male
chicks suffocated at birth, discarded layer hens, and
piglets who die before weaning.

Farmed animals literally never "have a nice day." From
birth, they are caged, crowded, deprived, drugged,
mutilated, and smothered on today's factory farms.
Even slaughter may not end their agony. Recent
documentaries have shown animals skinned, dismembered,
and gutted in U.S. slaughterhouses while still
conscious. USDA has never enforced the 1958 and 1978
federal Humane Slaughter Acts.

In more personal terms, during a 77-year lifetime, a
typical U.S. resident is responsible for the suffering
and death of 11 cows, 32 pigs and sheep, and 2,660
turkeys, chickens and ducks, and uncounted numbers of
fish and other aquatic animals - enough to populate a
family farm.

Moreover, the 10,063 million animals raised and killed
for food account for 98% of all animals abused and
killed annually in the U.S. Another 130 million
animals are killed for "sport," 60 million are used in
biomedical research and testing, and 5 million are put
down in pounds.

The worldwide number of animals killed for food in
2002 was 51.2 billion, according to the U.N. Food and
Agriculture Organization. This included 305 million
cattle, buffalo, and calves, 1.2 billion pigs, 813
million sheep and goats, and 49 billion chickens,
ducks, turkeys and geese. These figures exclude
non-slaughter deaths, generally not reported, and
deaths in small countries that do not report at all.
-------------------------------
The report on the number of victims of animal
agriculture is compiled each year by FARM, a public
interest organization, in connection with the annual
observance of World Farm Animals Day on October 2
(Gandhi's birthday). World Farm Animals Day
memorializes the suffering and deaths of innocent
sentient animals in the world's factory farms and
slaughterhouses and promotes humane, sustainable
agriculture.
This year's 20th anniversary observance brings factory
farm and slaughterhouse atrocities to the American
consumer. Activists in hundreds of communities in all
50 states and 20 other countries are arranging public
screenings of graphic video tapes, information tables,
exhibits, leafleting, marches, vigils, memorial
services, and mourning festivals. Hundreds of giant
billboards and bus display cards in nine major
metropolitan areas will carry the message to millions.
A number of governors and mayors are issuing
supportive proclamations. PETA and In Defense of
Animals are co-sponsoring the observance.

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