But if we aim to reduce total suffering, society’s ability to reduce this in other animals – which feel pain, too – also matters.
This is especially true when we look at the numbers: every year, humans slaughter more than 80 billion land-based animals for farming alone. Most of these animals are raised in factory farms, often in painful and inhumane conditions.
Estimates for fish are more uncertain, but when we include them, these numbers more than double.
These numbers are large – but this also means that there are large opportunities to alleviate animal suffering by reducing the number of animals we use for food, science, cosmetics, and other industries and improving the living conditions of those we continue to raise.
On this page, you can find all of our data, visualizations, and writing on animal welfare.
New page on animal welfare on Our World in Data
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Our team at Our World in Data just launched a new page on animal welfare! There you can find a brand new Animal Welfare Data Explorer, 22 interactive charts, and 4 new articles:
How many animals get slaughtered every day?
How many animals are factory-farmed?
Do better cages or cage-free environments really improve the lives of hens?
Adopting slower-growing breeds of chicken would reduce animal suffering significantly