This Earth Day, here’s how helping animals helps the planet

Happy Earth Day! If you’re reading this, it means you’re interested in helping end animal cruelty which can also help the planet. Here’s how.

1. #EatLessMeat

Due to the livestock industry’s heavy demand for crops, water, energy, and land, food has rightly become a key talking point in conversations around sustainability, climate change, and human health. Increasing demand for animal-sourced foods stimulates the intensification and industrialization of animal production. Industrial farming is a major contributor to the climate crisis, accounting for 70% of all agricultural land use and is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gases.

It’s not too late to reverse course, and you can help.

On this Earth Day, you can spread the word about the harmful impacts of factory farms and commit to eating less meat. Check out our tips for grocery shopping for plant-based proteins on a budget.

2. No future for factory farming

The majority of animals farmed for food live in conditions that cause suffering and stress. It’s time to rethink farming. By 2050, livestock production will be twice what it was in 2000. Right now, more than 70 billion animals are farmed for food each year – two-thirds in conditions that mean they can’t move freely or live naturally.

As we have mentioned, factory farms are vastly contributing to climate change and other destruction of the planet. In addition to eating less meat and animal products, you can choose high welfare meat whenever you do shop for animal proteins.

Not sure where to start? Download our free guide to decoding grocery store labels like organic and Certified Humane.

3. The wild animal pet trade

Every year, wild animals including turtles, lizards, snakes, parrots, monkeys, and otters are taken from their homes in the wild or intensively bred in captivity and sold as pets. Millions of animals are suffering as a result of these sales which are also fueling our global biodiversity crisis. Our polling shows that a shocking 1.4 million wild animals are kept as pets in Canada.

At all levels of government in Canada, most laws and regulations regarding the trade, use, and keeping of exotic wild animals are reactive rather than preventative. There is a desperate need for comprehensive, coordinated laws and regulations addressing the wide range of issues and problems inherent to the trade, use, and keeping of exotic animals, including animal welfare, human health and safety and threats to native wildlife, natural ecosystems, and biodiversity.

Take action now by sending a letter to the Minister responsible for wild animal ownership in your province or territory.

4. Preventing future pandemics

COVID-19 has underscored the urgent need for action to help prevent future pandemics. COVID-19, along with SARS, MERS, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, Avian Flu, and many other pandemics before, jumped from wild animals to humans through close proximity or human consumption. Zoonotic disease outbreaks are increasingly commonplace in the intensive confinement model of farmed animal production, and the wildlife trade system that allows and encourages wild animals to be treated as commodities for the sake of profit.

Did you know that 75% of new or emerging infectious diseases affecting human health are zoonotic (originated from animals) and principally from wildlife?

Join us in calling on the Government of Canada to:

• Support the immediate and permanent closure of wildlife markets.
• End the import and domestic trade in wild animals and wild animal products that could contribute to the spread of zoonotic disease in Canada.
• Champion this issue globally and encourage other countries to end the international trade in wild animals and wild animal products.

Click here to sign the petition.

5. Share this blog!

Be sure to share this blog to help spread awareness and encourage others to take action for animals, people, and our planet. Creating a better world for animals means a better world for people, too!