← on nowLGR-011 · v0.1.0 · model · count How many cattle are killed every second, every day, every year?
cattle · Bos taurus
killed by humans
330 million
a year
10.5
a second
903,491
a day
born to be killed
360 million
a year
11.4
a second
985,626
a day
alive right now, in the queue: about 497 million (rate × 550 days). average time left: 275 days.
method FAO slaughter statistics; births = slaughter plus bobby calves and calf mortality. standing stock via Little's law counts the slaughter queue, not the breeding and dairy herd (~1.5 billion).
- the gap is mostly bobby calves: dairy farms’ male calves, killed young because they cannot make milk. see: bobby calves. a cow can live twenty years.source: FAO; dairy industry data
- in much of the tropics the pasture under the ones dying now was forest within their grandparents’ lifetime.source: Global Forest Watch; Pendrill et al. 2019
live. this is the channel itself. embed it anywhere:
<iframe src="https://thetoll.earth/?channel=cattle" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #D9DDDB" title="the toll · cattle"></iframe>
or the whole broadcast, every channel, the same for everyone:
<iframe src="https://thetoll.earth/?embed=1" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #D9DDDB" title="the toll · on now, everywhere"></iframe>
how this number is built
- method
- FAO slaughter statistics; births = slaughter plus bobby calves and calf mortality. standing stock via Little's law counts the slaughter queue, not the breeding and dairy herd (~1.5 billion).
- range
- 0.30–0.35 billion/yr
- confidence
- count
- weakness
- the 'alive right now' figure excludes dairy and breeding animals by design and should be read as the queue.
- becomes a feed
- USDA daily slaughter
- dispute
- dispute LGR-011 · corrections are credited
- data
- channels.json (sign-in) · full entry · CC BY 4.0