FAST Friday: The Worst Meal and The Worst Graph

Chickens who roamed our neighborhood in exurban Pennsylvania. 

Passed along by a friend:

Our Animal Product Impact Scales ... estimates two things for every animal product: how many animal lives it takes, and how many days of suffering it causes. 

So their scale doesn't account for the differing capacity for suffering between species, nor the conditions the individual animal faces. That is, they don't distinguish between a breeding sow and a shrimp, or a backyard heritage chicken vs a caged hen on a factory farm. One day in the life of a prawn is the same as one day in the life of a confined veal calf.

• Chicken, fish, and egg products cause the most suffering and take the most lives. Dairy products consistently rank lowest.
• Chicken luncheon meat tops the list at more than 9 days of suffering per serving - the highest of all 97 products we analyzed.

When a university or city focuses only on carbon, switching from beef to chicken or fish looks like an easy win. But smaller animals mean many more lives affected per kilogram, so that switch can quietly increase animal suffering.

Although they ignore the differences in actual experienced suffering (capacity + conditions) they somehow put carbon emissions on the same scale as days of animal suffering! 

So for their "total harm" scale, one day in the life of a shrimp is the same as one day in the life of a veal calf, and both of those are the same as a small amount of carbon. 

(Even though increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is greening the planet and increasing crop yields, #4 here.)

The cults (1 & 2) continue their cruelty.