A common criticism
"Why fight for animals when there are humans who need help?" Because of speciesism, most people choose to support human causes. Let's see how the animal cause does on the criteria from the last chapter.
How serious it is
Most animals are born either into exploitation or in the wild. Either way, they usually live with a lot of suffering and die young.
Number of victims
Animal exploitation kills between 34 and 54 trillion animals a year. For comparison: about 55 million humans die each year, from all causes combined, including natural ones. And on top of that, there are astronomical numbers of wild animals suffering from natural causes.
Even a speciesist would have to put animals first
The author does the math, just for the sake of argument:
- suppose human suffering counted 10 times more than the same suffering in an animal;
- suppose there were "only" 1 trillion animals in extreme suffering each year, far fewer than the real number.
Even then, total animal suffering would weigh much more. With the real numbers, the gap is even bigger.
Neglect
The amount of people and money devoted to each cause doesn't match the number of victims. The animal cause gets very little by comparison.
In short
- Exploited and wild animals are in a very serious situation.
- Animal victims number in the trillions; human ones, in the millions.
- Even giving humans much more weight, the animal cause would be a priority.