Comparisons by Year 2000-2010

The total number of land animals who died for American diets increased by more than 200 million from 2009 to 2010 – or half an animal per meat-eater. This was due to an increase in the numbers for chickens (both meat and egg-type), and in spite of a decrease in numbers for cattle, pigs, and turkeys.

The past decade, however, shows a clear downward trend in animals dead per meat-eater. For every land species, numbers were lower in 2010 than they were 2000.

The total animal number is dominated by shellfish. As with most small animal species, a long-term downward trend is marred by a recent uptick in numbers:

The number of cattle and pig deaths have shown a steady decline for more than a decade:

Land animal deaths are dominated by chickens raised for meat, which have shown a sharp 14% decline since 2004, until a sudden reversal of the trend in 2010:

Recent years have seen a increase in deaths of chickens for eggs:

Turkey and duck deaths have both shown dramatic decreases over the last decade, though the large variability makes it difficult to know with confidence whether this marks a trend:

Calculated by Noam Mohr, noammohr@gmail.com, Jan 2012