Farm animal welfare

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Farm animal welfare

In 2013 9.1b farm animals were slaughtered in the US, and at any given point in time 2.2b farm animals were kept in captivity, usually under harsh conditions.

One possible justification for this state of affairs is that it is OK to slaughter farm animals, but not people, on account of farm animals smaller brain size. To explore this justification we present the following table, which shows the total brain mass slaughtered is equivalent to slaughtering 46m humans per year:

	farm animals slaughtered US 2013	brain weight (kg)	total slaughtered brain weight (kg)
cattle	32m	0.42	13m
chickens	8.6b	~0.003	26m
ducks	25m	~0.003	0m
pigs	112m	0.18	20m
sheep	2.3m	0.18	0m
turkeys	240m	~0.003	1m
total	9.1b	-	60m
equivalent humans	46m	1.3	60m

This is hard to accept. If we dig deeper, we might argue the average farm animal's life span was only cut short by about 10 years, while for the average human remaining lifespan is about 35 years. That still leaves it at an uncomfortable 2.6b human remaining lifespans, or 13m human brain equivalents slaughtered per year. The only way out of this uncomfortable state of affairs is to try and argue that the harm of slaughter grows exponentially with brain size, and as a result the lives of animals simply don't matter. I know of no justification for such an argument, but I take it as given, given the widespread acceptability of slaughtering animals.

Even if we accept the slaughtering of animals (if it is done humanely), there is a separate issue of farm animal pain and suffering. Here what we are interested in is not the number of animals slaughtered, but the number of animals that are held in captivity at any point in time, and the associated suffering they may experience. We make very rough guesses at the pain experienced by different farm animals based on what we have read, compared to what we term extreme pain and suffering, in order to produce the following table:

	farm animals in capitivity US 2013	brain weight (kg)	rough guess pain level	total animal extreme pain	total brain weight in extreme pain (kg)
cattle	90m	0.42	20%	18m	7.6m
chickens	1.9b	~0.003	50%	950m	2.9m
ducks	7.3m	~0.003	50%	4m	0m
pigs	65m	0.18	30%	20m	3.5m
sheep	8m	0.18	20%	2m	0.3m
turkeys	240m	~0.003	50%	120m	0.4m
total	2.3b	-	-	1.1b	15m
equivalent humans	12m	1.3	100%	-	15m

On a numerical basis the aggregate pain and suffering is equivalent to 1.1b animals in extreme pain at any point in time, or on a brain weight basis 12m humans in extreme pain.

Leverage Factor

We explore two different interventions and evaluate them using a number of different philosophical frameworks.

For the lives and lifespan counts considerations we guess individuals would be willing to largely stop eating meat in exchange for a cash payment of $2,000/year (current expenditure on meat and poultry are $660 for a household of 2.5 individuals or $270 per person per year); issues exist with how to enforce something like this, but which to get a rough feel for the issue we don't consider.

For the pain counts considerations we guess at the lobbying costs in order to improve farm animal welfare. As a sanity check we also consider advertising to reduce meat consumption. This has a smaller leverage factor, but it is still very large suggesting that reducing farm animal suffering is a worthy endeavor.

For the brains count considerations, a cheaper approach might be to fund research into the production of non-brainy meat. This is an approach we don't consider.

Project	Cost	Real world outcome	Outcome estimates	Economic value in Western terms
Lives count	$640b/year	stop the slaughter of farm animals	Population 320m; save 9.1b animal lives; value lives equivalent of humans at $2m life in this scenario	$18,000t/year (leverage factor 30,000)
Brainy lives count	$640b/year	stop the slaughter of farm animals	Population 320m; save 46m human brain equivalent lives; value lives at $2m	$92t/year (leverage factor 140)
Lifespan counts	$640b/year	stop the slaughter of farm animals	Population 320m; save 2.6b human lifespan equivalent lives; value human remaining lifespans at $2m life in this scenario	$5,200t/year (leverage factor 8,000)
Brainy lifespan counts	$640b/year	stop the slaughter of farm animals	Population 320m; save 13m human brain equivalent lifespans; value human remaining lifespans at $2m	$26t/year (leverage factor 40)
Pain counts lobbying	$100-500m/year x 5 years	stop pain and suffering of farm animals	Guess lobbying costs would be substantial since the agricultural lobby is likely to be opposed; price it at the higher end of observed lobbying costs; 50% chance successful; save 1.1b animals in extreme pain; value extreme pain at $200/day in this scenario; capitalize over 20 years; 50% x 1.1b x $200 x 365 x 20 = $800t	$800t (leverage factor 300,000 - 1,500,000)
Brainy pain counts lobbying	$100-500m/year x 5 years	stop pain and suffering of farm animals	Guess lobbying costs would be substantial since the agricultural lobby is likely to be opposed; price it at the higher end of observed lobbying costs; 50% chance successful; save 12m human brain equivalents in extreme pain; value extreme pain at $200/day; capitalize over 20 years; 50% x 12m x $200 x 365 x 20 = $8.8t	$8.8t (leverage factor 4,000 - 20,000)
Pain counts online advertising	$0.47	1 year of farm animal suffering averted	A different approach to the problem is given in The Most Good You Can Do (Singer, 2015, pg 143) which reports online advertising to reduce meat consumption costs $0.47 per year of animal suffering averted based on the work of Animal Charity Evaluators; value extreme pain at $200/day; assume average level of suffering is 50% of this amount (see earlier table); $200 x 50% x 365 = $37,000	$37,000 (leverage factor 80,000)

We believe stopping pain and suffering of farm animals is a much more achievable goal in the short term, than stopping the slaughter of farm animals, and it offers higher leverage factors under both the brains count and brains don't count considerations.

Leverage Factor

300,000 - 1,500,000 (if pain alone counts: weight pain by number of animals)

4,000 - 20,000 (if brainy pain counts: weight pain by brain size)