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Date Published: 21/09/2021

ARCHIVED - Spain slaughters 910 million animals for meat exports

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

According to animal welfare groups, Spain has fewer free-range animals than any country in the European Union

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Spain slaughters 910 million animals for meat exports

The number of animals killed last year in Spanish slaughterhouses soared to 910 million, 6.3% more than in 2019. Overall, there are 2.5 million kills a day, 104,000 every hour, 1,700 every minute and almost 30 every single second. Ironically, the amount of household meat eaten in Spain has dropped in recent years, so exports to Europe and the wider world are to blame. As a consequence, animal protection associations have lashed out at the “sinister” industry and criticised powerful meat production plants for usurping the smaller, more humane farms.

Last year 800 million birds, 56.1 million pigs, 40.7 million rabbits, about 9.5 million sheep, 2.4 million cows, 37,000 horses and 1.2 million goats were slaughtered in Spain for the international meat market, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA).

The result of all this was the production of 7.6 million tonnes of meat, most of which was exported. In the first six months of 2021, 60,000 more tonnes of meat has been produced in Spain than during the same period last year.

While more and more meat is produced in Spain, Spanish households now buy 6.5% less than four years ago, according to the NGO Animal Equality, mainly because this country only retains a paltry third of what is produced. Exports of meat have grown 47% since 2016, with the main purchasers being China and France.

Interestingly, since 2010 almost half of the smaller livestock farms in Spain have closed altogether, while the number of macro-farms has increased exponentially.

At a time when the entire world is united against climate change, it is important to note that these large-scale production plants, which can house up to 50,000 pigs or a million chickens, generate 14.5% of the globe’s greenhouse gases and water pollutants. The meat industry alone creates 15 times more excrement than natural farms, an amount that could fill 24,000 Olympic swimming pools a year, according to Animal Equality.

Shockingly, Spain has the highest number of livestock animals caged out of all the EU countries: “99% of rabbits, 98% of pigs and 82% of chickens live permanently behind bars”, according to an organisation for the protection of farm animals.

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