Deaths due to Pet Ownership

Pet ownership means outsourcing your conscience to an animal that can’t choose: averaged across the population, a modern life carries roughly ~1 dog and ~1 cat worth of meat demand over 80 years; not because everyone owns pets, but because enough people own several that the “average person’s share” adds up. Once you keep a carnivore, you don’t just feed it, you fund the killing required to keep it alive, then often let it hunt for sport in the margins of your neighbourhood. Total deaths come to typically ~179 mammals, ~193 birds, ~22 reptiles, ~13 fish, and around ~37,000 insects and invertebrates. This is broken down as follows:

• ~126 chickens are killed to feed the cat(s) your lifetime share implies; extra bodies bred and ended so your companion can eat.

• ~1 pig is killed (in whole or in parts) to feed the dog(s) your lifetime share implies; an animal of similar intelligence converted into "pet food."

• ~13 fish are killed to supply that pet-food stream; netted, hauled up, and turned into an ingredient line.

• ~178 wild small mammals die to the outdoor cat(s) your lifetime share implies; mice, voles, shrews: most never seen, never counted, just removed from the world.

• ~67 wild birds die; bright lives ended in a mouth that isn’t hungry.

• ~22 reptiles, amphibians, and other small prey die; slow bodies with nowhere to run.

• Insects & Invertebrates (mechanical, ≥1 mm share only):

  • ~2,500 insects — crushed and mulched during cultivation/traffic/harvest.

  • ~9,000 earthworms — cut, dragged up, dried out, or eaten alive after disturbance.

  • ~6,000 springtails — habitat reset; moisture lost; populations crash.

  • ~2,000 mites — ground disturbed; the tiny grazers shredded in pulses.

  • ~1,000 spiders — cover removed; crushed; prey-web collapses.

  • ~200 snails & slugs — slow bodies crushed on exposed ground.

  • ~100 millipedes & centipedes — burrows wrecked; bodies broken in churned soil.

  • ~150 woodlice & isopods — desiccated or pulped when shelter disappears.

  • ~180 other macro-invertebrates — grubs/larvae/predators erased as “operations.”

• Insects & Invertebrates (pesticides, ≥1 mm share only):

  • ~4,000 flies & midges — residues and drift sterilise damp edges and margins.

  • ~3,000 moths & caterpillars — larvae die mid-growth, mid-becoming.

  • ~2,000 beetles — neurological shutdowns and collateral exposure.

  • ~780 ants & colony insects — foragers killed; nest networks fail downstream.

  • ~40 pollinators & “beneficials” — not “the target,” just nearby.

  • ~100 aquatic emergent insects — ditch-edge life thinned where the chemistry lands.

  • ~2,500 other insects — the remainder bucket: nameless, erased.

  • ~600 earthworms — weakened by toxins; many die, soil thins.

  • ~500 springtails — residue exposure tips them over.

  • ~400 mites — populations crash after treatment.

  • ~500 spiders — secondary poisoning through prey.

  • ~500 snails & slugs — impaired movement; dehydration finishes the job.

  • ~200 millipedes & centipedes — residue stress and knock-on starvation.

  • ~200 woodlice & isopods — reduced feeding/moulting success; die off.

  • ~500 other macro-invertebrates — the “miscellaneous” deaths nobody records.

Including insects and invertebrates in the 0.1 mm to 1 mm size range, would add 1,170,000 lives, mostly comprised of mites and springtails.