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I came across this post supporting beheading a cattle for Eid al-Adha Festival:

Image saying About 1 billion animals killed each day by KFC, McDonalds, Buger King etc. to feed the rich and make money, and no one bats an eye/During Eid, Muslims sacrifive them to feed the poor for free, and everyone loses their mind

Its states that KFC, McDonald's and Burger King kill about a billion animals each day.

Is this true?

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    That number is obvious nonsense. That would mean 1 animal would be killed per 8 people living on earth every single day. Even if that was 1 billion chickens (no cattle or pigs) that would be enough to feed every single human on earth at least 200g of chicken meat per day. Btw as far as I understand most people lose their minds because of how those animals are killed - often in rituals that are forbidden by animal protection laws.
    – spickermann
    Jul 10, 2022 at 12:11
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    @spickermann While obviously nonsense, it appears to be a rather widespread meme. That makes this nonsense exactly the kind of thing that makes this a good fit for this site.
    – David Hammen
    Jul 10, 2022 at 15:27
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    @IMSoP world annual shrimp production is 5 million metric tons, about 100,000 shrimp per ton. So over a billion per day just for shrimp.
    – DavePhD
    Jul 10, 2022 at 18:20
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    The claim that "the rich" eat at "KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, etc." is so unbelievable that it hardly needs disproving.
    – Ray Butterworth
    Jul 10, 2022 at 21:08
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    @DanilaSmirnov That is a very low bar as it is not uncommon for people below the poverty line to be eating at all 3 restaurants.
    – Joe W
    Jul 11, 2022 at 15:40

1 Answer 1

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According to this article on the number of animals saved by Vegetarians per year, there were 9,061,378,100 land animals slaughtered in the United States in 2013.

They compile this information from the USDA Poultry Slaughter 2013 Summary, the USDA Livestock Slaughter 2013 Summary, and this USDA Report on international meat trade for animals imported

The article itself is pro-vegetarian, so it has every reason to get as high a number as it can for its report.

9 billion animals may be a very large number, but divided by 365, it doesn't come anywhere close to 1 billion.

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    The figures are for the US only, but even if one extrapolates it to the whole world (20× the population), it's still only a half billion, and that includes the (very false) assumption that the rest of the world eats as much meat per capita as the US. (In case it's not obvious, I'm agreeing with you, that's not my anonymous down-vote.)
    – Ray Butterworth
    Jul 11, 2022 at 15:48
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    That list only includes 8 animals (one is listed twice by age) and only for the US (and imported to the US). It leaves a lot of animals out of the list and a large amount of the world as well. For the record the animals they include are Chickens, Turkeys, Ducks, Cows, Calves, Pigs, Sheep, Goats, Bison. While it is a good starting point it misses a lot of data and you have to make assumptions to judge the claim false.
    – Joe W
    Jul 11, 2022 at 16:07
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    If you consider shrimp, clams, mussels, oysters, cockles, crawfish, eels, anchovies, smelt, sardines, etc.; easily over 1 billion a day.
    – DavePhD
    Jul 11, 2022 at 16:46
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    @DavePhD Seafood would definitely tilt the scales much further towards 1 billion for all animals killed by all people in the world. Though for "McDonalds, KFC and Burger King", probably not as much.
    – Zibbobz
    Jul 11, 2022 at 16:55
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    @DavePhD I stand corrected, and a little bit jealous of those menu options. I doubt that the original comment was intended to include shrimp - but also probably wasn't intended to exclude all other restaurants either.
    – Zibbobz
    Jul 11, 2022 at 17:31

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