[ 1.8 Billion animals killed to support vegan douche bags ]
HOW MANY ANIMALS OF THE FIELD WOULD DIE IF A VEGAN DIET WERE ADOPTED?
Animals living in and around agricultural fields are killed during field activities and the greater the number of field activities, the greater the number of field animals that die.� A partial list of animals of the field in the USA include opossum, rock dove, house sparrow, European starling, black rat, Norway rat, house mouse, Chukar, gray partridge, ring-necked pheasant, wild turkey, cottontail rabbit, gray-tailed vole, and numerous species of amphibians (Edge, 2000).� In addition, Edge (2000) says, "production of most crops requires multiple field operations that may include plowing, disking, harrowing, planting, cultivating, applying herbicides and pesticides as well as harvesting."� These practices have negative effects on the populations of the animals living in the fields.� For example, just one operation, the "mowing of alfalfa caused a 50% decline in gray-tailed vole population" (Edge, 2000).� Although these examples represent crop production systems in the USA, the concept is also valid for intensive crop production in any country.� Other studies have also examined the effect of agricultural tillage practices on field animal populations (Johnson et al., 1991; Pollard and Helton, 1970; Tew, Macdonald and Rands, 1992).�
Although accurate estimates of the total number of animals killed by different agronomic practices from plowing to harvesting are not available, some studies show that the numbers are quite large.� Kerasote (1993) describes it as follows:� "When I inquired about the lives lost on a mechanized farm, I realized what costs we pay at the supermarket.� One Oregon farmer told me that half of the cottontail rabbits went into his combine when he cut a wheat field, that virtually all of the small mammals, ground birds, and reptiles were killed when he harvested his crops.� Because most of these animals have been seen as expendable, or not seen at all, few scientific studies have been done measuring agriculture's effects on their populations."� In a study that has been done to examine the effect of harvesting grain crops, Tew and Macdonald (1993) reported that mouse population density dropped from 25/ha preharvest to less than 5/ha postharvest.� This decrease was attributed to both migration out of the field and to mortality. ��They estimated the mortality rate to be 52%.� In another study Nass et al. (1971) reported that the mortality rate of Polynesian rats was 77% during the harvest of sugar cane in Hawaii.� These are the estimated mortality rates for only a single species, and for only a single operation (i.e. harvesting).� Therefore, an estimate somewhere between 52 and 77% (say 60%) for animals of all kinds killed during the production year would be reasonable.� Using the population density shown in Tew and Macdonald�s (1993) paper (25/ha) times a 60% mortality rate of 15 animals/ha each year.
If that is true, how many animals would die annually in the production of a vegan diet?� There are 120 million ha of cropland harvested in the USA (USDA, 2000) each year.� If all of that land was used to produce crops to support a vegan diet, and if 15 animals of the field are killed per ha per year, then 15 x 120 million = 1800 million or 1.8 billion animals would be killed annually to produce a vegan diet for the USA.�
