U.S. consumption of animals by type

[David3]

Per the North American Meat Institute, the vast majority of animals slaughtered for meat in the U.S. are chickens. A chicken is a much smaller animal than a pig or cow, so a larger number of individual chickens are "needed" to equal the weight of a larger animal.
Link: North American Meat Institute




This is why Mercy For Animals recommends that, for people who will not eliminate meat entirely, those people should at least consider avoiding chicken, fish, and eggs (see page 12 of their Vegetarian Starter Guide: https://mercyforanimals.org/files/VSG.pdf ).

With Kentucky Fried Chicken's (limited region) adoption of plant-based "chicken" options, maybe there's reason for hope? Chickens are the most slaughtered animals in the U.S.
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[silva]

I've always felt that way, and was repulsed by all those avoiding "red meat" by consuming so many more smaller animals.
If you really want to play devils advocate you would pick the larger animal.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I'm not so sure about this - cutting out chicken first rather than beef does eliminate more overall direct animal suffering (probably by a wide margin), but cutting out beef first eliminates more global warming also by a considerable margin. This has more positive effects on a whole range of questions such as whether the entire Amazon rainforest collapses due to climate change or whether some tropical countries and coastal cities have to be abandoned later in the century and a 100 other things related to global warming. Climate change is also bad for wild animals in many ways as I've discussed before elsewhere.

Cutting out beef first also has a positive effect on land use - it makes it easier to protect tribes in the Amazon, grow more food for everyone, retain natural ecosystems etc. 80-90% of Amazon rainforest destruction is for beef. How do you weigh up all those things against the suffering of chickens?

Also pigs are very intelligent, does that mean we should value them more? If not because we value intelligence in itself then because intelligence may be correlated with more sentience and hence more suffering?

When we consider these points, it's not clear to me whether we should advocate for less chicken eating specifically unless we think they are probably are going to be replaced by vegetarian meals. If people eat more beef instead, they will cause more global warming and more land use issues.

My strategy for now is to advocate for vegetarianism as a starting point at least. Failing that, just less meat.

 

[JacobEdward]

If you count the day old chicks and forget about the fish I guess it would make sense

 

[JacobEdward]

This is why Mercy For Animals recommends that, for people who will not eliminate meat entirely, those people should at least consider avoiding chicken, fish, and eggs (see page 12 of their Vegetarian Starter Guide: https://mercyforanimals.org/files/VSG.pdf ).

Its this bizarre thing to hear, the principle would be like they recommend you hunt your own ox because it would be less death...
Hunters have taken over MfA