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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?

Oddthinking
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Simon Park
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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 '22 at 12:11
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    I think the "etc" at the end makes this too nebulous to be meaningfully answered. – F1Krazy Jul 10 '22 at 14:39
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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 '22 at 15:27
  • @F1Krazy I can see two ways around that: 1) look at the meat use of the three chains mentioned, and if it's a tiny fraction of 1 billion animals, the etc is doing an unreasonable amount of work; 2) look at the number of animals killed per day globally, and see if there is *any* interpretation of "etc" that would make the claim true – IMSoP Jul 10 '22 at 17:58
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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 '22 at 18:20
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    I thought the fast food venders bought their meats. – blacksmith37 Jul 10 '22 at 18:39
  • @DavePhD Hah! I admit I hadn't thought of that angle! – IMSoP Jul 10 '22 at 18:42
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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 '22 at 21:08
  • Related https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/31743/does-the-average-american-eat-7-000-animals-during-their-lives – DavePhD Jul 10 '22 at 22:01
  • @RayButterworth I guess "the rich" means "anyone willing to spend money on fast food" in this context. – Danila Smirnov Jul 11 '22 at 08:25
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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 '22 at 15:40
  • @spickermann - If we go by politically-conservative definitions, each egg used would count the same as a fully developed adult chicken, maybe? – PoloHoleSet Jul 12 '22 at 16:36
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    Thank you for being specific about questioning the "1 billion" part, because I was really struggling with the idea of McD's, BK and KFC "feeding the rich." – PoloHoleSet Jul 12 '22 at 16:37

1 Answers1

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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.

Laurel
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Zibbobz
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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 '22 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 '22 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 '22 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 '22 at 16:55
  • @Zibbobz depending on the country, McDonalds and KFC have shrimp, especially in the middle east. https://www.saudi.kfc.me/en/for-one/zinger-shrimp-box/8294572 ; https://www.egypt.kfc.me/shrimp-meal ; https://www.mcdonalds.com.cy/mcdelivery/shrimp-burger ; https://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/en/products/800010/ – DavePhD Jul 11 '22 at 16:59
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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 '22 at 17:31
  • In addition to seafood, the article also doesn't seem to count the animals killed in egg and dairy industry as those aren't saved by vegetarians. – Enivid Jul 13 '22 at 20:53
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    Based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale and https://granthaminstitute.com/2019/10/18/9-things-you-need-to-know-about-krill-and-why-they-are-essential-to-the-health-of-the-ocean/ a single blue whale kills about 1,000,000 animals a day. If we assume 10,000 blue whales in the ocean (within the range Wikipedia gives), that would be **10 billion** animals a day killed, and no one bats at eye at those cruel, cruel sea mammals. – Bryan Krause Jul 14 '22 at 20:43