Facts and figures about animals in Australia

[tru]

Just thought I'd post this interesting article for anyone who's interested

http://www.animalclub.org.au/about_a...t_animals.html

Facts and figures about animals in Australia

• 335,000 female pigs (sows) are kept inside sheds continually pregnant and confined.2 This is equivalent to the whole population of the ACT. 62% of sows live in ‘sow crates’ for part of their reproductive cycle.3 Sow crates are 0.6m x 2.0m. Sows are not able to turn around or take more than one step forward or back.4 Around the world 1 billion pigs are killed for pork products every year.5 5 million pigs are killed in Australia 6 and more than 90% of these are raised in intensive conditions.7

• Around 10 million 'battery' hens are held in bare wire cages in Australia 8 - that’s nearly half our population! Each hen has just 450sqcm - 550sqcm of space (less than an A4 size piece of paper), with not even enough space to stretch her wings fully, to freely move or to exercise.9

• More than 4 million sheep and over 572,000 cattle were shipped abroad from Australia in 2005. Tens of thousands die as a direct result of the difficult journey each year (over 24,000 sheep in 2004).10

• Other animals are hunted, experimented on or just abandoned on the street by uncaring people.

• 30 million kangaroos have been shot over the last decade.11 A further 3 million young at foot joeys (young kangaroos) have been orphaned, left to starve or been eaten by other animals such as packs of wild dogs.12

• Approximately 6.5 million animals (including lots of mice as well as some monkeys, horses and dogs) are used in research and teaching in Australia.13 Many of these experiments can be replaced by existing alternative research methods.

• 130,000 dogs and 60,000 cats are killed each year in pounds because they have been abandoned.14

• About 34,000 native animals are killed on Australian roads every day.15 Multiply this by 365 days of the year – and you get a very large number in the millions! Their pouch young often die slowly from the cold or starvation if they survive the initial collision.

[Acacia]

Horrific....

My mum once said to me 'The way we treat animals is comparable to the holocaust'.